


Dragon Emperor

by Shinigami2530



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Highschool DxD (Anime)
Genre: Attempt at Humor, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Crossover Pairings, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Harems, Humor, Multi, Not meant to be serious, Slow To Update
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-17
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:22:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 57,610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27604850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shinigami2530/pseuds/Shinigami2530
Summary: Wherein Harry is found by an old and powerful devil who discovers that Harry is the Red Dragon Emperor. Harry/harem. Bashing of any character will be kept to a minimum and will only be done as an attempt to make things funny.
Relationships: Harry Potter/Ingvild Leviathan, Harry Potter/Kuroka, Harry Potter/Original Female Character(s)
Kudos: 27





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Harry Potter is the property of JK Rowling, and High School DxD is the property of Ichiei Ishibumi. This is a fan made non profit work of fiction. I don't claim the rights to anything that you may recognize from other series as well.
> 
> Warnings:
> 
> 1\. While there will be no lemons, this fic is rated M for language, violent themes, and explicit situations.
> 
> 2\. The personalities of some, or most, characters have been changed either slightly or majorly to better suit the story.
> 
> 3\. I wrote this intending it to be a crack fic, something that I don't take very seriously.
> 
> 4\. This fic has a central OC. If you don't like that, stop right here. Also Harry is OP as fuck. Did I mention that this fic is not to be taken super seriously?
> 
> 5\. Expect Cliches. Oh, and I made some changes to the lore of both fandoms.
> 
> 6\. Contains a (hopefully) different Dumbledore. And any bashing that I may do will be just for lulz.
> 
> 7\. I have never read the DxD light novels. Any information I have about any character that the anime has not covered comes from other fanfics and the wiki.

Mephisto was an old devil. He had been alive for quite a few centuries, millennia even. He had seen the rise and fall of empires of both man and devil.

Despite all of this, he was quite a peaceful devil. He had, in the early 6th century AD, formed a strong friendship with a human who would go on to become Merlin Ambrosius. Mephisto had given and trained Merlin in magic. But, to be honest, he had stayed mostly out of the whole Round Table nonsense, except for one small time when he told Mordred that Arthur would definitely just hand over the crown to him.

While what happened in Camlann was what followed, but to be honest, Mordred was an idiot of the highest order to have believed him, especially when Mephisto was drunk.

But he was getting off topic. For a human to be able to do magic there were four ways. One was the simplest: natural. You were born with the ability. Second was if a supernatural being (such as Angels or Devils, or even gods or certain youkai) could awaken the potential within a human, by permanently transforming their DNA to be able to perform magic. Thirdly a human, especially if they were genetically predisposed to be able to use magic, but couldn't, they still could awaken the power if they underwent enough stress (physical or mental). This was extremely rare, and happened only twice before, at least according to what Mephisto knew.

And then there was number four. The luck of the draw. All Sacred Gear users, upon activating their Sacred Gears, unlocked magic. They may not be able to use it to the full potential, but they still unlocked it nonetheless.

What Mephisto was looking at in front of him, was a small four year old boy, who had one. The Boosted Gear. The boy was fast asleep, on the couch in his lavish office in Berlin.

As Mephisto wondered what he could do, his mind wandered off to how he had found the child two hours ago.

_'Number four Privet Drive,' Mephisto thought to himself as he teleported in front of the house. Tannin, his Queen, had told him that there was a young boy being abused._

_The boy who held the Boosted Gear. Apparently Ddraig had contacted Tannin through their Draconic Telepathy, and had told him to come to the rescue ASAP. Mephisto didn't know the full story yet, but had jumped straight at the opportunity of rescuing the boy._

_There was only one Boosted Gear user who had been abused in recorded history, and when he had too much, the results were a uncontrollable Juggernaut Drive that had immediately been activated. An entire country had turned to rubble overnight. But that was multiple centuries ago, and Mephisto had no intention of letting that happen again._

_And besides, the opportunity to have the Red Dragon Emperor on his side? That was too good to pass up. If he would not have gone, Azazel would have. While Mephisto had a friendly relationship with the Fallen Angel, that didn't mean that he was without faults. Azazel would probably dissect the kid._

_What he saw wasn't exactly new to him. A four year old, getting kicked and punched by an overweight man. Compared to some Devil families, like the Baels, this was actually quite tame._

_Regardless, given that he didn't want any incidents taking place, Mephisto had swooped in, taken the young boy and left, without saying a word._

_Was it kidnapping? Of course. But quite frankly, Mephisto wasn't exactly going to ask. Had they been a normal family, then he would have bothered to explain the situation, and implore them that the kid needed training. If they refused, then he'd resort to mind manipulation._

_But that was here nor there. And he felt killing the humans would be too much of a chore._

That brought him to the present. The small boy slept soundly as his injuries healed. Mephisto wasn't even doing anything; it was the boy's own magic. As a Devil who had been walking amongst the humans since the Great Faction War all those thousands of years ago, Mephisto could tell with absolute certainty that this kid was a very powerful one.

Sure, he was only four. But his clots had long since dissolved, leaving behind the red, freshly formed skin. Magic always protected its user, well under normal circumstances, and this was a prime example. Ddraig wasn't probably doing anything either. The Dragon didn't directly help his host when he was being beaten down, and that hadn't changed.

His legs were still broken, though.

Mephisto looked up as a raven haired beauty entered the office. The bronze skinned woman was tall, almost six feet tall. Her voluptuous figure was barely contained by the maroon robes she wore. Her golden eyes glanced over Mephisto, before widening as they looked at the child.

"Oh my Satan! Did you go around beating little kids?!"

"Of course not, Irma!" Mephisto snapped at his Bishop. "If that were the case, why would I bring him here instead of finishing what I started?"

Irma shook her head as she immediately went to work on the boy. She was an exceptionally talented healer, and ran her own medical school, which mostly accepted Devil students. Probably for the best, given that it was located in Hell.

Irma calmly listened as her King told her of the circumstances. Anger rose within her eyes as she heard that this child was being abused before being rescued by Mephisto.

She was, however, not that surprised at the lack of apparent sympathy from the old Devil. He had fathered multiple children, but not many Devils made for good parents. Sure, he had children, and a few were alive today, but it wasn't as if Mephisto had bothered to actually know them well.

"You know, Mephisto, you aren't exactly a model parent, especially if you want to train him. It is important that he spend some time with his own peers as well as have a good role model. Here he has neither."

Mephisto looked at her oddly. "Nonsense! I am a great parent! Why, just look at my son Dustin!"

"Damien." Irma corrected, knowing full well who he was. Damien was the product of an affair between Mephisto and Druella Paimon, but the Paimon matriarch refused to acknowledge his existence. The result was Irma practically raising the boy by herself, given that Mephisto was mostly an absentee father.

"Right. Damien. He must be nineteen now!"

Irma glared at him. "Ninety."

"Of course. And having fun with his girlfriend, no doubt!"

Irma threw her hands up. She may not have given birth to him, but she loved Damien as her own son. "Damien's gay and happily married to a werewolf! Do you know anything about him?"

Mephisto looked at her with a confused expression. "Uhhhh... He is a furry too?"

Irma just shook her head. "My point exactly. Here's my idea. I take him, and you train him."

"But you said he needs friends!"

"I know a few people with children his age! Most of my staff have grandkids his age!"

Mephisto gave her a look. "Wait! I know!" He said as he disappeared.

Irma looked at where he had been with a shocked expression, just as her King arrived moments later. This time, there was a sleeping girl with him, around the age of Ddraig's host. She had dark hair, and a roundish face. Of course, her face would probably become more angular as she grew up.

"For the love of! You can't just go around stealing human children!" Irma glared.

"Technically she's a pure Veela."

"Not the point!"

Mephisto was unbothered. "Is it kidnapping if they are orphans? I mean, it's not like that their parents are going to miss them..."

"Oh for fuck's sake, Mephisto!"

"What? If you had seen the state of the orphanage, you would have taken all the children! And not just her! They didn't even have a DSL connection! That orphanage was even run by priests! Who's to say that she won't be — oh right, she's not a boy. Never mind the last point."

"Put. Her. Back." Irma challenged her King with a glare.

Unfortunately for her, Mephisto had grown rather used to her death glares — the old devil wasn't exactly afraid of many things these days — and hence didn't exactly do as she asked.

"And how exactly are you going to make me, my dear Bishop?"

"By taking both of them away from you!" Irma said with a grin as a teleportation circle appeared underneath the sleeping children, whisking them away.

"Well played," Mephisto said as he stroked the stubble on his chin. He then sighed. Despite the fact that Irma was the fourth human to be turned into a Devil by the Evil Piece System all the way back in the 9th century, she had still retained her humanity. "Ok, look. You can raise the kids. The orphan stays with you. However, I train them in magic. Myself. And you have no say in that whatsoever."

Irma held out her hand. "Deal."

Mephisto grinned, "You know how devils seal their deals… with an open mouth kiss."

"Yeah, I'm not falling for that again." Irma didn't let up her glare. "Seriously need something like HR in here…" she muttered under her breath as she held out her hand.

Mephisto grudgingly shook her hand. "Deal."

He hated the fact that she had found out that Devil Pacts were mostly verbal.

* * *

At seven years old, Harry Potter was already among the more powerful humans. Or that is what Mephisto felt. A lot of that could be attributed to the fact that he had awakened the Boosted Gear just a year ago. Well, fully awakened.

Mephisto had learned that Harry Potter was an anomaly. His magic, when he was being abused, had in fact awakened Ddraig's soul, but not the Sacred Gear. Such a thing was impossible, as the soul inside a Gear could only awaken after the activation of said Sacred Gear.

Mephisto had chalked it up to the faulty System, especially given the way Michael was running things. For all his power and ideals, the oldest angel still wasn't his father. He was not trained to control His System.

Over the three years, he had reluctantly gotten closer to Harry, and even to the Veela girl he kidna—saved from an orphanage. The two were near opposites in terms of personalities; Harry was shy and introverted, Sapphire the Veela was very outgoing and outspoken. She was named such for her piercing sapphire blue eyes.

...that was all Mephisto knew about the differences in personalities. In terms of magical power, however, at this age, Sapphire outranked Harry, if the boy wasn't using his Sacred Gear.

Mephisto watched passively as the two sparred, only using their physical prowess.

Harry ducked under a wild kick, jumping around her and tried to punch her sides. Sapphire blocked the blow, her icy blue eyes boring into his emerald green. A feral grin came to her face as she slammed Harry in the stomach, sending him back as he coughed.

Mephisto knew that this was important. He needed to know which one of them was physically stronger so he could instil fear of the other into the weaker one. Then some subtle manipulation behind the scenes, and they'd be challenging each other for ever.

He had blatantly lied to them that they had to keep in shape as that way their magic would grow stronger. Magic actually had no relationship with physical prowess. Magic was its own entity, and could only be strengthened by exercising magic, not muscles.

He chuckled to himself. He wondered how long till they figured that out. Oh well, at least they were being trained in martial arts. Then again, he needed to start training them in weapons as well. Perhaps he could let Tannin do that.

* * *

Four more years had passed.

Harry had been formally introduced to Tannin, and they had hit it off. Tannin even called him 'Little Dragon' at times. Tannin and Ddraig alike had helped Harry learn the way a dragon breathed fire. While it was no where as hot as Dragonfire, it was still hot enough to melt stone.

Sapphire, on the other hand, had been introduced to an old friend of Mephisto's, one who was also his second Bishop. Gregor Faust, the legendary mage. The Veela girl had learned the hard way that Faust was even more of a sadist than Mephisto when it came to training.

The reason for dividing them up was simply because their current mentors had asked Mephisto to do so.

In the past year, Irma had finally gotten full custody of Sapphire and Harry (bureaucratic hell took on a whole new meaning in the actual Hell). Despite this, Tannin mostly hogged Harry all to himself, claiming that having even a Sealed Dragon for company was still better than talking to Devils all the time.

Mephisto wasn't even allowed to play even a small role in their parenting. He still had them for magical training however.

All because he wanted to drop the kids on an uninhabited island and told them to survive for 6 months. Sure, no one complained when the Leviathans practically use a similar method to train their kids (on a much harsher scale — the Leviathans used familiars that hunted the kids to death), but when he did it it was 'child endangerment' and 'negligence'. He felt it was double standards.

Mephisto was brought out of his musings when Harry and Sapphire came to him, holding letters in their hands.

_'Oh shit. Totally forgot about the magic schools...'_

"Why did you apply us for—"

"I'm going to stop you _right_ there," Mephisto said, taking a sip from a glass of whiskey that he held. "You two were registered in those schools by your parents, a long ass time ago. They don't exactly have any other choice, given the backwardness of the human magical world."

"What do you mean? I don't have any parents!" Sapphire asked. "Irma's the closest thing to a mom!"

"Of course not, you just materialised into existence," Mephisto said sarcastically. "Fucking kids... Okay, you did have mommy and daddy who either didn't love you enough or are dead. Because they lived in a magical society, they were required by international law to register your sorry asses in these schools. Something that I still don't understand to this very day."

Sapphire didn't exactly react to the insults; and neither did Harry. You quickly developed a very thick skin around Mephisto. That, and this was pretty tame. It could get a lot worse depending on the amount of alcohol in his system.

"Of course, they even have this wonderful tracking system that identifies any magical child not born to magicals that automatically registers these kids in their schools. And no, neither of you will ever go to these institutions where they teach you how to kill your sense of wonder and imagination." Mephisto said.

"But there must be some good to these schools right?"

Mephisto looked at Harry. He always looked on the bright side of things. It was annoying. "Not necessarily. Take Hogwarts, for example. You received a letter from them. You see, Hogwarts has one very big flaw. They think they're hot stuff. Sure it is the best school for magic in the world. This isn't an achievement though. They're the best because their competitors are so incompetent in every sense."

Mephisto pointed at the very fancy letter in Sapphire's hands. "As for Beauxbatons. If you can't get high quality of education, just ensure that your school is so fucking fancy that no one notices that you don't have a single competent teacher."

Sapphire frowned. She had hoped that the school that reached out to her was better than Harry's. It was a matter of pride more than anything. The two competed in nearly everything.

"Of course, neither of these two come anywhere near the travesty of a school that is Durmstrang. If a mass murdering pedophile were to run that place, oh wait, Igor Karkaroff is one."

Mephisto shook his head. He had met nearly every single headmaster of every school, though only Albus Dumbledore was able to figure out what he truly was. And who he was. Mephisto's respect for the human had increased ever so slightly that day. Which still wasn't saying much.

"Who?" The kids said together.

"A fucked up moron."

Harry piped up. "You call every human a moron."

"That is because I have yet to meet a human who isn't one, present company included. And before you ask, yes, Merlin was one as well."

"But-But Merlin was a genius," Sapphire muttered. Merlin was her role model of sorts. Mephisto looked at the girl.

_"But Mephistoooo!" Merlin whined. "I am 60% sure that I can turn Arthur into a cute girl! With a thirty percent chance I can change him back without complications…long lasting ones that is!"_

"Sure. A huge genuine genius. And he became that way by not following daft morons who run outdated schools." Mephisto pushed down his memory of the legendary wizard. He did not have it in him to destroy Sapphire's hero worship of the man. She was still a child, and despite his harsh words, he fully believed that she should stay that way for as long as possible.

It was of no surprise to Harry that Mephisto said all of this with extreme nonchalance, as if he didn't even care. And knowing him, he didn't. Which was why Harry didn't bother asking a question that Sapphire did.

"So why didn't you fix it?"

Mephisto gave Sapphire a look. "Because, my dear sweet girl, this may come as a surprise to you, but I don't quite care. I am not certain when they started becoming more idiotic than the average human, especially when they began spouting nonsense of blood supremacy. But that is their own fault, and if they want to be stupid, then that is their choice."

Mephisto shook his head. "Now. Dear children, scurry along. Gregor tells me that you still haven't mastered control of fire. To a Veela, that should be second nature. Unlike Harry, who has withstood Tannin's flame."

Harry snickered at a pouting Sapphire.

"Of course, Tannin was using the weakest possible flame of his, which cannot even warm my tea. A dragon should not be afraid of standing even in the hottest of fires."

This time Sapphire gave him a condescending grin. "Ha! Sucker!"

"But I'm human…" Harry whispered dejectedly.

"A human with the soul of a Heavenly Dragon. The fact that you can breathe Dragonflame without any side effects is proof that your body is adapting to the draconic soul inside you." Mephisto lectured.

It was really very interesting to observe. Mephisto had Irma take multiple samples from Harry – blood, urine, even his CSF — and all pointed towards one simple fact.

Harry Potter did not possess any side effects of being the child of a man who was probably born between relatives, given how the Pureblood Society tended to be. Mephisto was quite sure that at least any child born in the House of Black in the UK would be confused by now as to call his sister a sister or lover. Probably that child would even be confused given the high probability that his mother was the sister.

Oh, and Harry was slowly turning into a human-dragon hybrid of sorts. Mephisto was unsure where the process would stop. He had speculated this as a consequence of Harry awakening Ddraig even before he unlocked the Boosted Gear.

Of course, it could also be possible because of the Sacred Gear itself. Mephisto would need to consult Azazel. But he wasn't going to. Azazel was as devious as Mephisto himself, and hence he didn't particularly trust the Fallen Angel Governor.

That, and that asshole denied to this day that he had knocked up one of Mephisto's daughters.

Mephisto watched the kids leave, looking at the letters in his hand. He wondered if he should reply or not. It wasn't like they could do anything if he didn't send a reply. But that Dumbledore was a stubborn human. He would use anything to track down a potential student, even more so given that the rumor was that Harry had backfired the killing curse onto that wannabe dark lord.

Beauxbatons, unlike Hogwarts, Mephisto felt, had an even more of a moron in charge. It was pure fact that half-giants and giants didn't have the same intellectual capacity as an average human. They had already fucked up by putting one in charge. Granted, this one was much more smarter than most average humans, but Mephisto wasn't going to be surprised if the school burned down one day. If it weren't for the extremely powerful wards that discovered all magical children that reached the age of eleven, Maxime wouldn't even have found Sapphire.

With that in mind, he decided to reply the Hogwarts letter alone. It wasn't like Beauxbatons was going to send a representative. For a school that claimed to be the most 'accepting' and 'diverse' they really didn't help newcomers.

Or, he could just send the two to the different schools and then have them tear apart these places from the inside out. Mephisto dismissed that idea. He really needed to cut back on the alcohol, he thought as his glass of whisky automatically refilled itself.

* * *

Dumbledore was relaxing in his office in Hogwarts as he lamented over the past decade. It had been a major blow when he had found out that Harry Potter had been kidnapped, rather unexpectedly.

Knowing that it would be a very powerful wizard to have broken past his blood wards, Dumbledore believed that Harry was as good as dead. The good people of Magical UK believed that he was lost at sea, having been gone with his relatives overseas where the ship had capsized due a storm. He had even sent the Dursleys out in the sea and promptly sank their vessel to further prove his tale should anyone make the connection between him and the Dursleys and have enough brains to use a phonebook.

Dumbledore laughed at that. The people of Magical UK were sheep. They needed to be told what they should believe in. He had tried his damnest to change that, and had failed. He had seen it when Gellert rose to power, even though he was quite a charismatic man. And very handsome and dashing. His eyes were so beautiful that it made Dumbledore weak to this day.

But Voldemort wasn't like that. During his rise to power, Dumbledore had tried to convince the Order to fight back, but then that bitch Trelawny had given her fake prophecy that had turned everything against him. The Order and Voldemort believed that was real, and James, Lily, Frank, and Alice had promptly gone into hiding. They all began to believe that Voldemort was truly invincible until a 'Chosen One' could appear.

That didn't last long, given that the Potters were dead and the Longbottoms tortured to insanity. Dumbledore didn't know how; extreme pain for a prolonged period would have sent their bodies into cardiogenic shock that should have killed them a lot earlier.

And by then, Voldemort was dead, or more accurately turned into a wraith and Dumbledore had lost his faith in humanity.

But Harry was, most likely dead.

Or at least that was what Dumbledore believed till now. Hogwarts had sent his letter to him, but the address was in Germany. Dumbledore could only hope that he was safe and would send a confirmation back. Again, not because he personally cared, but Harry was a symbol, and Dumbledore planned to use him to show the world that Chosen Ones do not exist. Perhaps then everyone would wake up from their fantasies.

But when he had received the reply, Dumbledore's blood turned cold in fear. Sure, Harry had declined. That wasn't really an issue. He could persuade the boy if he so desired. The issue was the real sender.

Mephisto Pheles.

Dumbledore had met the old devil once. In the early thirties, when he had accidentally offended the devil. The result was that Mephisto had aged Dumbledore physically, from a handsome young man to a really old, wizened looking man. It had ruined all of the intense sex he would usually have with Gellert. The impressive thing was that his life-force and vitality weren't even affected by the curse, but only his physical appearance. Well, there was something else that had also been affected, but Dumbledore did not pay attention to that problem. It wasn't like he used his 'wand' anymore in any case.

Dumbledore didn't really remember what he said to the devil, just that it was something related to how Dumbledore was hailed as the next Merlin. Perhaps he was pranked, perhaps that had not sat well with Mephisto.

Either way, Dumbledore had learned not to cross him.

But now… Harry Potter was in his custody. Did he kidnap the Boy-Who-Lived? Or did he find Harry while the boy was on the run and took him in? These questions were running in his mind. Dumbledore didn't know what to do, which was a first.

Perhaps he should try praying for once. Surely there were angels if devils existed, right?

Oh, who was he kidding. Like angels would ever help him.

He, who had stayed out of the first war when Gellert practically ran unchallenged, only because he couldn't find it in him to go against the man he loved. By the time he realised he was too far gone, the destruction was immense. And even then, Dumbledore didn't even have it in him to kill Gellert.

Then, when he began to notice the darkness in Tom Riddle, he had ignored it, hoping someone else would as well. That had backfired spectacularly. Voldemort was born, and the rest was history.

Dumbledore thought his entire existence was worthless, given that he had achieved practically nothing. He hated the fact he was worshipped like a messiah, but kept appearances that it didn't affect him. And because he hated the way Magical UK operated, he had decided to change it.

First, by becoming the Chief Warlock. Fat lot of good it did, given Lucius Malfoy and his ilk practically stomped any and every change he tried to bring. Then he thought of influencing the youth. Teach them how to form their own opinions and actually use their minds.

Once again, Malfoy's influence stopped him at every turn. He was forced to keep Severus Snape as his Potions Professor, and practically ignore all complaints against the man. Then, in a more recent time, he was forced to rehire, or rather, not complain when the Board rehired Quirell.

Dumbledore was no fool, and he wasn't a slouch in the Mind Arts. He could practically feel Voldemort in Quirell's turban. But, once again, he couldn't find it in him to stop the wraith.

At this point, Dumbledore had given up trying to change or save the Wizarding World. He didn't want to be the hero, ever again.

* * *

Sapphire smiled to herself as the Blue Shell hit Harry's Link. At sixteen, had undergone her Veela puberty, which was a very painful process. She looked like an eight year old one night, and a young woman in her early twenties the very next morning.

Her Allure had also kicked in at the same time, and Harry had been attracted to her almost immediately. Normally he had very high mental shields but he was still a teenager. And Sapphire knew that she was very beautiful. All Veela were.

Well it wasn't really fair to say that he was the only one who was attracted to her. Possessing Ddraig's soul and having undergone a partial Dragonification that made him highly resistant to most toxins and diseases, as well as changing his eyes to having a vertical slit instead of the circular pupils, he also exuded the typical Dragon's Aura that just draws every one in.

Unlike the Veela allure, the Dragon Aura was capable of attracting every thing, from potential mates to powerful enemies who wanted to challenge him.

It was very confusing to both of them, not knowing if they liked the other person for who they were or was it because of their respective auras.

They had yet to fully act on their feelings, but said feelings were promptly ignored in the intense game of Mario Kart.

"You bitch…" Harry growled lowly as her Bowser overtook him, making Sapphire giggle and she promptly flipped him the bird in response.

"Oh yeah? You know what's funny?" Harry said as he picked up a new power up that ended up on the Blooper.

"You two are still playing that game?!." Mephisto yelled as he suddenly came in the room. "Because it'll rot your brains! Literally, because I put a curse on it."

Harry and Sapphire promptly dropped the controllers and glared at the devil, the intense round of Mario Kart forgotten.

Mephisto barked out a laugh. "The looks on your faces! Oh man. I didn't curse it to rot your brains!"

The two glared harder.

"Enough of that. Come with me, brats. I'm sending you on a mission!"

"When and where?" Sapphire asked, excitement creeping in her voice. "And what is it? Rescue a princess? Assassinate a terrorist? Destroy a revolution?! Or start one?"

"Shut up and listen. First, it's probably nothing. Some idiots summoned me using my Seal, so we're going to find out what these morons want."

Harry looked at Mephisto oddly. "You still send out your Seals? I thought you stopped giving those in the early 1600's?"

"These morons must have found one, fully intact, and used it. That being said, because it is a genuine thing and I could get into legal trouble in Hell, literally, if I don't answer, I have to do this shit. Except you brats are doing it for me."

Devil Seals. It was how Devils made pacts and granted wishes to humans. No matter what the wish or the pact, the Devil in question would always be the real winner. You did not even need magic to summon the Devil, you just needed the correct Seal. Each Devil had their own unique Seal made when they turned sixteen. The design wasn't necessarily unique, but the Magical signature was.

Harry and Sapphire glared at him before summoning their battle clothes, immediately redressing themselves. Harry's was a lightly armored red and black shirt with paddings on the wrists and shoulders, and blue cargo pants that were lined with runes to bolster his speed and strength. There were two swords strapped to his back, both of which he designed using Mephisto's help. One was lined with runes for holy magic and the other with demonic. He had named them 'Celestine' and 'Discordia' for… obvious reasons.

Sapphire preferred a sleek blue robe that matched her eyes well, and hugged her curvaceous body to better accentuate said curves. She tied her long dark hair in a neat pony-tail to avoid it getting it in her eyes. Like Harry, her robe also contained carved runes, but they were designed to support her magic rather than physical prowess. To top it all off, she wore high heels that also had runes to help her walk and run as if she wore regular shoes, and simple white gloves that were for show only.

"Lazy bastard," Harry grumbled as he walked past Mephisto, causing the Devil to chuckle in response.

One teleportation circle later, the three of them were standing in front of a middle aged couple, who were no doubt very wealthy given the fact that they were in a mansion and wore expensive clothes and jewellery. The woman was a plus sized fifty year old, with graying hair and dark eyes. The man was even more fat, having a bald spot and a thin moustache. He wore glasses that covered his grey eyes.

And technically, only Mephisto was visible, as he didn't want them to see Harry or Sapphire till the contract was set.

"Oh dear! It worked!" Exclaimed the woman.

"Yes, yes, get on with it," Mephisto cut in before the husband could reply. He hated them on principle, because they had summoned him. "What do you fat morons want?"

The woman was immediately outraged, but the husband cut in. "Is it true that you grant us anything we desire?"

Mephisto raised a brow. "I am not going to waste my time making you slim or your wife more attractive. Quite frankly that requires a specialist who is more than willing to help a hopel—"

"You DARE?!" The wife interrupted, before she found her voice silenced.

"Hush now. But I suppose that I must ask, what is it that you desire?"

The man was stunned for a second, not believing his eyes as his wife tried to talk. But obviously couldn't. He regained his bearing. It wasn't wise for them to anger a demon, especially one they'd summoned. "We want you to find our daughter. She was taken from us and the police were of no help. The kidnappers have not even asked for a ransom!"

Mephisto rolled his eyes. "That's even more boring." He snapped his fingers and the air shimmered, the invisibility spell breaking down into light particles. Harry and Sapphire became visible, and they stood at Mephisto's side. They did not react, and neither did the old couple.

"Now, I am Mephisto Pheles, one the oldest, most powerful Devils to ever exist, have a Dragon King and four Ultimate Level Devils in my Peerage, and I myself am capable of performing such a trivial task from your very home. Of course, I could send the most competent lot to find your daughter and have her found within the hour."

Despite his hurtful and offensive comments earlier, the couple smiled happily, looked elated even. This was all for a moment before it all came crashing down.

"But... because you called me here for a meaningless task, I'm not going to do any of that and instead send these two greenhorn kids to do this instead."

For the first time, the man looked angry. "WHY?" He wailed suddenly. "Why get our hopes up then?"

Mephisto smirked. "Because you love your daughter."

"Of course I do! She means the world to me!"

"But I couldn't care less. Anyway the contract is set. They'll find her. And I will get an IOU from your fatass later. Ciao!"

With that he disappeared, leaving behind his students who waved at the couple awkwardly.

* * *

Harry stretched his senses. His nose twitched, trying to smell the scent he had gotten from the kidnapped daughter's clothes.

Tannin had told him that Dragons were the pinnacle of evolution, and now, Harry could believe why. Dragons loved flying. As a result, their skeleton was filled with pneumatic spaces that allowed for faster flight. Of course, the atcual flight was aided by their immense magical power, allowing such a hulking beast as a dragon to defy gravity. Their eyes were incredibly sharp, to notice their prey from high up. And to add even more detection to their senses, an incredibly sensitive nose.

Even for a partial Dragon like Harry, who had all of these things but highly reduced in strength, meant that he could easily track her down using her belongings.

That, and Harry was sure no one could afford this expensive perfume in the slums of… whatever city they were in.

"Why is it always a warehouse?" Sapphire said as they came across one. "So cliché!"

Harry smiled. "It does make our job easier."

Sapphire looked at him. "I suppose. Wait." She said as she stopped him from entering. Harry was more of a on-the-go sort of a man, but she preferred to be cautious. She was a very good sensor, and could sense a few powerful people behind that door.

"Three powerful signatures. The strongest one is… well, I'd say as strong as you, but you can boost yourself..."

Harry smiled. Except this was a battle hungry smile. He loved a good fight.

"Then let's meet our foes, shall we?"

With that, he opened the door.

* * *

"Don't worry, you'll be safe here," said a young Chinese man with blue eyes and short black hair. He was handsome in a 'pretty boy' sort of manner. He carried an air of authority about him.

The girl he was talking to nodded. She appeared to be a fifteen year old girl with long blonde hair and striking blue eyes. She was also very well developed. "I can take care of myself, CaoCao."

CaoCao smirked good naturedly. "I'm sure, you can. But you have not fully awakened your Sacred Gear, have you?"

"Oye. Two intruders have showed up," said another blonde haired girl who wore orange armor. "They seem... powerful." She readied herself as a sword appeared in her hands.

CaoCao just sighed as an ornate spear appeared in his hands. This was his Sacred Gear, the True Longinus. "Doesn't matter Jeanne... I am sure we can defeat them."

"Oh look!" said the male of the pair, smirking as he saw the three of them. "Fate/Stay Night cosplayers! We have a Lancer, and a Saber! Let's see how long before the Lancer ga shinda kicks in!"

CaoCao twitched. "First off, that's inhuman, suggesting that I would die so quickly. Secondly, I'm not a Servant, you know. No one is going to use Command Seals to make me kill myself."

There was a loud silence.

The black haired man who had entered looked at him, his emerald green eyes wide. The admittedly beautiful brunette just face-palmed, as did Jeanne.

"Did… did you just understand me?"

Harry was surprised to see that his opponent was a fellow weeb. "I almost don't want to fight you now..."

CaoCao pinched his nose in annoyance. His response was quite frankly a bit of an impulsive reaction. "Sorry, but who are you? You feel human but you are not entirely so."

"Harry Potter, at your service. And my lovely partner here," He gestured towards Sapphire who just nodded. She frowned internally. Harry's partner. Well. She was going to change that. Eventually. "Is Sapphire. Anyway, we have been contracted by—"

"My step parents to find me?" a cool voice cut in, belonging to the fifteen year old who watched them intently. "I suppose they told you that I have been kidnapped. But that's not true. I ran away with these guys, see."

"Ok, glad we cleared that. But we have a job to finish."

"Well then, Harry," said CaoCao. "I can't just allow you to take her. After all—"

"She's her own person and should make that decision herself?" Harry interrupted.

CaoCao twitched again. "Not what I was going with, bu—"

"What do you mean by that?!" The blonde kidnapped(?) girl asked. "He's right! I came with you of my own free will and I can leave you of my own free will!"

"See, Lancer? The blondie agrees with me!" Harry said with a smile.

"The 'blondie' has a name!" Said blondie snapped. "Its! Lavinia!"

"Well then, Lavinia," Sapphire cut in. "You see, the contract we made was for finding you. We didn't promise that we would return you. That would have cost them extra..."

Lavinia visibly relaxed. "Oh good. I'd rather not go back to those guys. They're not the best parents. I'd rather have devils as my parents."

"No you don't," said Harry and Sapphire with flatly. "Believe me, you don't."

CaoCao raised his brow. "Oh? That's what I felt from you? A half devil? But then this spear would be more than sufficient to kill you."

Harry shook his head. "No, we're human and veela respectively. It's just that we were raised by a couple of devils. And again, no, we aren't a part of their peerage."

Mephisto had been quite insistent on Harry not joining any peerage. It had something to do with his dragonification. Apparently, Evil Pieces turned the target(?), victim(?) whoever, into fully fledged Devils, while keeping their inherent powers intact. Humans were converted into Devils 100%, but youkai or other species would retain their abilities to utilise their unique powers and skills while still being Devils.

It worked wonders for most species, but not Dragons. Dragons by themselves were more powerful than Devils. When Tannin had been resurrected as a Devil, it had not made him stronger, but rather, given him an extra weakness: his weakness to holy magic and attacks meant to kill devils.

"So, the Devils are keeping you hostage then, forcing you to do their dirty work for them. How despicable." Jeanne commented.

"You are half correct," Sapphire replied. "This particular devil is forcing us to do his dirty work, but not because he's holding us hostage."

"Okay, enough talk." CaoCao cut in. He stood in front of Lavinia in a protective pose. "You want her? You go through me."

"You sick bastard! She's not some prize to be won!" Harry said. Sapphire bit on her lip to prevent herself from giggling.

CaoCao now looked uncomfortable, as even Jeanne was glaring at him. "I'm not! What I meant was that she is under my protection!"

Harry didn't let up. "Oh sure. My bad. I'm sure that your intentions are completely pure and in her best interests."

"They! Are!" CaoCao yelled, frustration finally getting the better of him.

Harry smirked. "What are they, then? Your intentions, I mean."

"Yeah, CaoCao, what exactly are your intentions when you helped me?" Lavinia cut in. To be honest, she had run away on her own and was found by CaoCao and Jeanne who offered to help her. She had agreed as she had no other option. She didn't exactly have any funds or resources to help herself.

CaoCao was silent for a while before he glared at Harry. Jeanne's eyes widened, when she understood what Harry was trying to do. "CaoCao wai—"

Her warning came too late when CaoCao charged towards Harry.

* * *

CaoCao grunted as he stood up. He had been knocked back by Harry, and quite effeciently. He may have sounded and acted like an eccentric idiot, but CaoCao learned that Harry was just playing him. He had used the element of surprise to knock him around, leaving intentional openings during the fight, hoping that CaoCao would take them.

And of course he did, only to be entrapped by the green eyed man and knocked back by a powerful lightning attack that erupted from his body.

"You are quite good, Harry Potter. I underestimated you." Not to mention, he didn't even use the swords. Curiously, the Longinus didn't cut him as deeply as it should have. Almost like Harry had an extremely tough skin.

Harry smiled. "It seems like I also may need to get serious..."

"Ho? You can take my spear on?" CaoCao readied the Longinus.

Harry drew his swords. "I suppose that this makes me a Saber. You know that I now have the class advantage."

"We'll see about that!"

"How about you two stop measuring up your dicks?" Sapphire cut in. She was standing with Jeanne and Lavinia, confusing the two men.

"Yeah, we came to a conclusion when you two idiots were fighting. After consulting with Mephisto of all people," Jeanne said, trying to wrap her head around that. "We decided that Lavinia would be going with Harry and Sapphire. Something about her education into magic and how to use her Sacred Gear."

Lavinia nodded. "And besides, Jeanne has my number. If I need to leave, I will give you a call, mmkay?"

CaoCao and Harry looked at them incredulously. "What just happened?"


	2. Chapter 2

"Well…" CaoCao said as he heard the full story. "That was anticlimactic."

Harry nodded. "Tell me about it. My own partner kills my fighting boner."

'I would have killed that boner in another way,' Sapphire thought. "Well, the priority wasn't your fight, but Lavinia." She replied instead. "And now that we have decided our next course of action, we don't need to be enemies anymore."

Jeanne nodded. "True. So… how about we start over? As friends?"

Harry looked at the beautiful blonde. "Sure!" He said with a smile. "My name is Harry Potter, apprentice of Mephisto Pheles! Nice to meet you!" He held out his hand.

"And my name is Jeanne, reincarnate of the Jeanne d'Arc." Jeanne responded in kind, shaking his hand, and noticing his shocked reaction. That wasn't surprising to her, many people had a similar reaction.

What Harry did next surprised her, however.

He immediately let go of her hand, and pulled out his phone. "Shit! Forgot to open it today! Need to collect my login rewards!" Then he glared at CaoCao. "Why did you pick this location where I have no signal you douche! I want my free summoning ticket dammit!"

CaoCao had a similar reaction. "Wait! There's a Starbucks down a few blocks, I'm sure they'll have a WiFi! I need those SQ as well!"

With that they both ran towards said Starbucks, leaving the three girls by themselves.

Lavinia looked at them. She palmed her face, wondering if she should just go back home. Neither lot seemed sane. Perhaps she was the insane one.

Sapphire looked at Jeanne. "So, Saint of Orleans?"

"Well, I'm not the same as the original Jeanne d'Arc. There are things that I don't understand about her and cannot fathom, and there are things that I did that no doubt would be frowned upon by my past self."

Sapphire smiled. "Don't worry, I am aware of how reincarnation works."

"How?" Lavinia asked. This was new to her.

"Well, the soul is essentially stripped of its past experiences before it enters the new life. However, in cases of some exceptional people, the soul retains memories, but not the personality, of the original." Sapphire said, trying to explain in the most simple way possible. Harry always claimed that she would make an excellent teacher.

Lavinia looked thoughtful. "I see. So… should we go after them? Or something?"

Jeanne and Sapphire nodded. "Sure," said the former. "I could even use some coffee."

Harry, Sapphire and Lavinia appeared deep within the Black Forest in Germany, having teleported there. Lavinia looked on in surprise and awe as a stone pathway that lead to a giant mansion appeared out of nowhere. There was a huge garden in the front, and she was sure that a similar garden would be in the backyard.

"So, anything that I need to know about Mephisto?" Lavinia asked her escorts? Friends? She didn't know yet. She'd settle for friends for now.

"Well, he is incredibly rude. And tactless. And likes offending people. Also, never ever go to him when he is drunk. He is… weird and plays pranks that one day will destroy humanity when drunk." Harry said.

"It's not that bad?" Lavinia asked, now feeling as though she should have just gone along with CaoCao.

"It's not," Sapphire said. "It can be worse. But don't get me wrong. He knows his shit. He knows more about magic and everything related to it than anyone else in the world. And I'll concede that do not approach him when he's drunk."

"That should be simple enough, right?" Lavinia enquired.

Harry shook his head. "No. He talks, walks and even acts normally if he is under the influence. The only clue is that he won't be holding a glass of any drink. And the weird, evil acts he'll do."

Wanting to know more, Lavinia asked, "Like what?"

Harry sighed. "Well, if you want the ancient ones he committed, there was this time in the eleventh or twelfth century when he tricked these three wizards into believing that he was the incarnation of Death itself and gave them three highly cursed artefacts for 'cheating death' when in reality they had simply conjured a bridge over a random river."

"Okay...not something that I expected..."

Sapphire picked up. "And one more time in the fifteen hundreds when he stole gold from some goblins and inadvertently started a goblin rebellion that would be recorded as the bloodiest rebellion in history."

Harry continued. "And if you want a much more recent one, there was the time when we were eleven and went to him and asked him if he could teach us how to fly."

"So, you want to learn how to fly, eh?" Mephisto said as he looked at the two kids. "Well, there's the easy way and the hard way."

"Ummm... The easy way?" Harry replied. Sapphire nodded as well, wanting to fly.

Mephisto nodded and took out a small pouch from his pocket, containing a pure white powder. "The very first step is to make a thin line out of the coca—I mean pixie dust."

"Oh my god." Lavinia said in shock.

"If you kids are telling my drunk adventures," Mephisto suddenly said from behind the trio, scaring Lavinia and sending Harry and Sapphire into their battle stances. They relaxed when they saw him, however, with the exception of Lavinia. The two relaxed even further when they noted that he held a glass of bourbon. "You should tell her about the time I convinced a large bunch of politicians that Healthcare should be a privilege."

Then he looked at the new girl. "Hmmm. You are less impressive in person. I hope you won't disappoint."

Lavinia gave him a determined look. "I won't!"

Mephisto nodded. "Well. Let's go inside. And you, new girl, don't spend too much time in the west most end of the garden. That is not a carrot patch, and that is all I'm telling you."

"Can't sleep?"

Lavinia almost threw her glass of water at the voice. She turned around to see Sapphire, donned in a sheer blue nightdress. Lavinia blushed, Sapphire may as well be nude in that. She tried to not get distracted by Sapphire's downright amazing body. Lavinia also tried not compare her breasts with that of Sapphire's. She may be well endowed, but Lavinia was still growing. The Veela had a kind smile on her face as she approached the younger girl.

"Well… no, not exactly. I was just thirsty."

Sapphire looked at her. "Look. I may not be as good at determining emotions as Harry, but I can tell you're a bit… sad."

Lavinia looked up at her, noticing the height difference. Sapphire was tall, no doubt, but this was the first time Lavinia was made aware of that. "It's just… I've been here two weeks now. So for, I have only learned how to levitate objects and summon things. Mephisto won't even tell me how to activate my Sacred Gear. And everyday, I see the two of you do so much more than that. I just feel like I am not doing enough."

"You are a beginner. Of course you would not be able to manipulate the elements themselves to your will just yet. Harry and I, we've been practicing magic since we could walk." Sapphire said as she tried to raise Lavinia's spirit. Well, technically, they were practicing magic since they were seven, but to-may-to to-mah-to. "And obviously Mephisto won't let you activate your Sacred Gear willy nilly. Not until you yourself are more than powerful enough to stand on your own feet without it's power."

Lavinia looked surprised. "I thought my main strength would be my Sacred Gear." That was CaoCao had told her anyways.

Sapphire nodded. "It may be, yes. But Harry must have told you about his Sacred Gear, yes?"

Lavinia nodded. She had been very surprised to find out that Harry was the Red Dragon Emperor. He had never even used his Boosted Gear from what she had seen.

"Harry almost never uses it, because he was taught not to be overtly reliant on it. Don't get me wrong, I've seen him battle with Tannin before and he is extremely proficient in using it to its full potential, but he is not dependent on it." Sapphire explained. "The reason is because Mephisto knows no less than twenty methods of sealing away Sacred Gears, albeit temporarily. Three of these are quite common in the Underworld, often used in Rating Games."

Lavinia thought it over. "I see. Even if my enemy finds a way to somehow seal away my Sacred Gear, even if it is but for a second, that might just make him the victor, yes?"

Sapphire nodded. "Exactly. And, if it is an elemental type, you might want to diversify. Because then it becomes a magical game of rock-paper-scissors. You know, like water beats fire, fire is strong against air, etc."

Lavinia nodded again. "I see. So what you are telling me is, just be patient?"

Sapphire smiled and nodded. "Exactly. Despite the fact that we told you all negative things about him, Mephisto is the best at magic. There is no competition when it comes to his knowledge. You are in more than capable hands. Especially if he decided to continue to teach you after a week."

"Huh?"

Sapphire's smile widened into a small grin. "You see, Mephisto is a devil. He is selfish to the core. He would never teach you if it doesn't benefit him. But nonetheless, he continues to be your tutor. Mephisto doesn't do charity, Lavinia. He makes investments. He is investing in you. So, you must be worth it. And I'm telling you, you are."

"Thanks, I guess.." Lavinia muttered. She didn't know if Sapphire was trying to make her feel better with that speech or warning her about her tutor. Before she could say anything else, there was a large BOOM!

"Oh don't mind that," Sapphire said. "That's just Harry in the backyard, no doubt practicing his destruction magic. He does that in the night at times."

Lavinia felt relieved at that. She never even heard it before, but every single bedroom in the mansion was sound-proofed, so that might have been the reason. Wait. Every bedroom was sound proof, so why had Sapphire come down in the kitchen? It can't be because she heard Lavinia.

"Why are you here anyways?"

Sapphire gave her a grin. "I love to watch Harry when he practices. He is always shirtless and in shorts."

Lavinia looked down. Harry's aura and even his general nature had made her develop a crush on him. Of course, his naturally good looks helped as well. She wasn't sure if it would go anywhere, especially given that she had to compete against someone like Sapphire. So she didn't act on it. "You really like him, huh?"

"Well yeah. He's a good looking guy, and is always fun to be around. And his immense power is just the cherry on top." Sapphire replied. Well, that and she was always very comfortable around him. He made her feel so very safe by simply being in his presence. Like his aura was enveloping her and keeping her warm, like a cup of hot chocolate on a particularly cold winter night.

"Then why don't you ask him out or something? I can see that he likes you too!"

Sapphire blushed softly, looking at Lavinia. "You know that I am a Veela and I exude an allure that draws men in, right? And his dragon side also draws everyone to him?"

Lavinia nodded. Harry had explained it to her. It was a bit of a shocker, especially when she learned to ignore the illusion that he placed on his eyes to make them appear normal. The slitted pupils were a bit scary, though she grew used to it.

"It's because of that. Even I can tell that he is attracted to me. And he knows that I have a crush on him because he is a natural empath. But neither of us are sure that we like each other for who we are or because of our respective allures. And, that is why we just stayed friends."

On more than one occasion, Sapphire wanted to kiss Harry, especially during their spars. She could even feel Harry's arousal when they got really sweaty. But neither ever made a move, not wanting to make things awkward.

"That's dumb," Lavinia said. "You both are dumb."

There was another explosion, but this time Lavinia ignored it.

"Huh?"

"Even I can see that you two like, no, maybe even love each other. You've never heard yourself talk about him. You get that glint in your eyes, and you talk in a wistful, happy tone. There is a longing in your eyes, and your face flushes deeply. If it was simply his aura attracting you, you would have not felt so deeply. And he is the same way." Lavinia said with full confidence. That was another reason she didn't act out on her feelings. "How does he miss that with his empath abilities is beyond me." She muttered lowly. But that might be because Harry needed to 'activate' them. Harry had explained to her that his empath ability wasn't passive, and he expended magic to sustain it even for a short amount of time. Sure, he did not tell her just how taxing it was, but Lavinia assumed that he could not sustain it for more than a few hours at a time.

"Because Veela emotions aren't the same as human emotions," Sapphire said softly. "My mind is wired different than a human's. That is more than enough to throw his empathic ability off its mark. I don't know what emotion he picks up from me. Maybe it's pure lust and that is why he doesn't take the first step. Maybe that is why he may not know that I lo—like him."

This time Lavinia grinned. "Then take him into a room, and show him that your feelings are more than just lust. You can talk about the details later, sister!"

There were a few more explosions in quick succession that once again went ignored by the two.

Sapphire smiled softly, despite her flushed cheeks. Whatever she wanted to say next was cut short when they heard the door open and Harry walked in, holding an unconscious black haired woman. With cat ears. And two tails.

"Oh, you're both up. Look what I found!" He said cheerfully, as if he wasn't covered in bruises and scratches and not holding an unconscious woman having two tails and cat ears.

"What the fuck?" Sapphire and Lavinia exclaimed at once.

Harry was doing his usual routine of practising his destruction magic when he noticed a small black cat that had somehow entered the boundary that covered the outer edges of Mephisto's property.

"Awww... What a cute kitty," he said as he approached her. Well, he assumed it was a her. "Are you lost?"

To the cat's credit, it did an excellent job of portraying fear as it backed away in fright. But Harry wasn't fooled. For one, his empathy was active, and the emotions he was picking up from the cat weren't cat-like. It was more akin to a devil.

That, and that cat had two tails.

"Don't be afraid, kitty! I just wanna talk! Whoever, and whatever you are." He added the last part as his eyes narrowed pointedly at her.

He then watched in fascination as the cat transformed into a young woman, with long dark hair and yellow, almost amber cat-like eyes. The two tails were swaying behind her, and two cat ears stood in attention on her head. She looked at him from head to toe, smirking a bit as she licked her lips.

"It seems I've been caught, nya~" She said. "What gave me away?"

Harry looked at with a deadpan. "Cats don't have two tails."

To her credit, she didn't even look sheepish. "I see. Well, I can't exactly let you go, now."

Harry smiled as he assumed his battle stance. "Well, I hope you can give me a good workout."

The cat woman responded by trying to fire multiple bolts of energy at him. Harry easily dodged, and responded by firing off a shot of his own. A shield of energy appeared before her that slapped away the red bolt, but Harry had moved closer.

Channeling magic into his fists, he began to punch, but to his surprise, the woman caught his fist and slammed him down. He immediately rolled out of the way and jumped back. He was put on the defensive as she began to shoot a barrage of bolts at him.

A few hit, but he ignored the pain. Tannin's regular attacks were a lot worse. So the woman wasn't trying to kill him? That confused him. Especially regarding her words of not letting him go. Perhaps she wanted him unconscious so she could erase his memory of her.

Harry took to the sky as she pressed her assault. He wondered if she would run out soon. But he did not want to take that chance. Suddenly stopping mid air, he put his arms in front of him.

"O mighty flame that burns all sin, SHINE!"

A blue flame shot down from his palms at breakneck speeds at the woman, who just as quickly dodged. Only to feel Harry's elbow in her gut. She gasped in pain as she stumbled back, and Harry knocked her out immediately after.

He picked up her unconscious body with a sigh. "I really need to work on that incantation. I mean, 'mighty flame that burns all sin?' I'm sure that I can come with something better before I shoot an illusory fire."

"And that is why there is a woman tied up in the house," Harry explained. He and Sapphire were now dressed in more decent clothes.

Mephisto rubbed his forehead in annoyance. No amount of gin that he held was going to be enough. "You don't know who this is do you?" He asked as he pointed at the woman was tied to the chair. She was now fully conscious, and glaring at her captors. She was unable to talk because of her gag. It was her fault that made her check out all that explosion noise that was coming from the deeper part of the forest, and she really needed to work on her transformation magic to hide her second tail.

Of course it was her luck that she was captured by devils.

"Her name is Kuroka. A criminal on the run for killing that creepy fuckwit Hector Flauros. Something she should be awarded for if you ask my opinion."

"Okay, so we turn her in?" Lavinia asked.

Mephisto looked at her. "Of course not. Like I said, she should be rewarded for killing Hector. The only thing I am mad about is not killing that fucker myself."

That surprised Kuroka. They weren't going to turn her in? The reward for her capture was huge! She had basically ended a Devil Pillar!

"So, why do you hate this… Hector?" Sapphire asked. Especially since they had never seen Mephisto this angry at someone.

Mephisto gave Sapphire a small glare, but even she could tell that it wasn't directed at her, but at this Hector. "He stole my work. I researched for more than a few centuries about how to utilize siren blood as a catalyst in awakening latent potential in devils. He had funded that research, and after I was done, he basically published it in his name, threw me out of the team completely, and went out of his way to ensure that I would not be able to sue or get him for doing so! Oh how many times I planned to kill him, but then I simply began to ignore that bastard completely."

Kuroka inwardly nodded. That sounded a lot like her master.

"So the least I can do is ask his killer why she killed him. Then let her go."

Kuroka suddenly found that her gag had disappeared. "He wanted to experiment on my sister that would probably kill her."

Mephisto raised a brow. "Experiment on a nekomata? Or even nekoshou? That is illegal especially given the rarity of your kind. If word got out, then the youkai faction will start a war, no doubt. If you could have just told your side of the story, and provide sufficient proof, especially to someone who would listen, then you could even be pardoned."

Kuroka caught on. "What proof?"

"You witnessed the experiment? Your memory would be sufficient."

Kuroka nodded. "Then take it. If you think that you can get me acquitted."

Mephisto made a gesture, and Sapphire moved to collect the memory. "Now, I will not make promises, girl. I know not if you will be acquitted fully. But at the very least, I can lessen your sentence. You are already a devil, so even if you have to spend some time in prison—"

"Just do what you can," Kuroka said. "If it means being with my Shirone again, I don't mind serving time."

Mephisto nodded as Sapphire handed him the memory. "I'll take this to Ajuka. He owes me for a favor, and he is sure to help. I think."

Six weeks had passed since Kuroka's capture. The nekoshou had decided to stay with them, mostly because she was attracted by Harry's dragonic aura. More often than not, she could be seen lounging in Harry's vicinity in her cat form, and to Sapphire l's chagrin, cuddling with Harry when he slept in her human form.

The not-so-subtle smirks and grins Kuroka sent her way didn't help either. She knew that she was making the Veela jealous. For his part, Harry wasn't dense to the drama, but mostly stayed out of it. He felt that if he did, he would make things worse.

Especially given what anime had taught him. Sapphire was the childhood friend, Kuroka was the onee-chan, with the added benefits of being a catgirl, and Lavinia… he'd call her the blonde foreigner type tsundere, but she hadn't displayed any signs of being one. Harry could tell she was attracted to him because of his empathy. But she never acted out on her feelings and instead suppressed them.

Did it confuse him? Of course it did. Just because he could sense emotions doesn't necessarily mean that he could sense motivation. At best, he could make a fair and good guess, but that was that.

Harry tried not to think much about it, even as he knew that he was slowly getting a harem. He just needed to play his cards right. Again, every harem ecchi anime taught him that he needed to play dumb and not act out on his own and everything will turn out fine.

"You have made enough progress, I think," Mephisto said as he looked at Lavinia. "We shall now activate your Sacred Gear. But first, why do you think that Sacred Gears are unique? I mean, most of their abilities can be reproduced quite easily with regular magic."

Lavinia answered confidently. "Because they allow for such miracles to be performed instantly without prior training."

"Partially, yes. But it goes beyond that. A Sacred Gear will usually bend the rules of both magic and science, if not outright break them. Take the Blades Blacksmith, for example. It creates magical swords. As in, swords that are conjured with an active enchantment. This goes against the usual conjuration laws, wherein it is quite difficult to the point of impossible to do so without the Sacred Gear. With me so far?"

Lavinia nodded, but didn't say a thing.

Mephisto continued. "However, this merely bends the laws of conjuration, but doesn't break them. Now look at Harry's Boosted Gear. What does that do?"

"Doubles his powers every ten seconds."

Mephisto nodded. "Yes. But have you wondered where that extra power comes from? I'll give you a hint. Not from Ddraig, the dragon residing within the Sacred Gear." Mephisto paused, to see if Lavinia would guess. At her silence, he continued. "No, that extra boost is literally created from nothing, going against the laws of conservation of energy. That is why it is that dangerous. Improper handling of such a powerful tool can, and will, destroy any inexperienced person. Harry himself cannot handle more than a few boosts before the energy he created becomes too much for his body. Remember. Any Sacred Gear that outright ignores the very rules that govern this universe, are the Longinus Class. You met another, yes?"

Lavinia nodded again. CaoCao had told her about his Divine Spear, though she initially assumed that he was talking about his… spear. "CaoCao. He had the True Longinus. But what law does that break?"

Mephisto smiled. "Every single one. No one truly knows what the True Longinus is capable of. Each of its wielders have had different experiences with it. It's true potential is that of a world destroyer."

Lavinia's eyes widened. That was CaoCao's full power?

"Of course not, silly girl," Mephisto said, picking up her thoughts. "I said it has potential to be one, not that it is one. Just because they're God Killing Tools doesn't mean that an user has actually killed a god. But enough on that. Focus on your own self. Find that what lays dormant, and activate it. The simplest way is to feel powerful, and believe that you are exactly that powerful."

Lavinia nodded. Feel powerful? The simplest way she could think of was to imagine herself in the way she always had. Completely independent. She wanted her own independence, especially from her step-parents. They had adopted her to further their own status, though she did not know how they would do that.

She concentrated on her own thoughts and tried to draw out something. Apart from her own magic. She did not know what she would draw out.

Mephisto, for his part, watched her for a while with interest. He could always use an illusion to place her in a traumatic state which would force out the Sacred Gear, but didn't want to. Mostly for his own safety, especially if his hunch was right and the girl had a very powerful Sacred Gear. If he forced her to awaken it, then the Sacred Gear's power may lash out, and it would be quite detrimental to his health if it was any of the Holy items or capable of producing Holy energy.

Lavinia huffed in frustration after a good five minutes. "Isn't there some spells to awaken my Sacred Gear? Sapphire told me that you knew multiple ways to seal one away."

Mephisto sighed. "Sealing a Sacred Gear is quite easy. But doing the opposite can have explosive reactions from the Sacred Gear. Just keep trying. If all else fails, then we go for the big guns. Might even need to call Harry and Sapphire in to erect multiple barriers if necessary."

Especially Harry. He could easily strengthen a barrier by transferring the built up power from the Boosted Gear. But that was only if all else failed.

Lavinia, for her part, gave it a few more tries. Almost twenty minutes later, a chill swept throughout the room, ice rapidly forming on the windows. Mephisto's glass of Margherita also froze solid. As for the devil himself, he immediately reacted by heating up the glass first to liquefy the alcohol, before using it to keep himself warm.

A giant three meter tall doll appeared behind Lavinia, in the form a woman with a long flowing dress with four slender arms. The face lacked a nose or even a mouth, but had six eyes on the left side and the right side looked like it was studded with something, that resembled a rose's thorns.

"Sorry," Lavinia said as she noticed that the entire room was covered by ice.

Mephisto smiled. "Don't be. That is an extremely powerful Sacred Gear. Absolute Demise, one of the thirteen Longin…" He stopped as he realized something. Absolute Demise was incredibly rare. Knowledge of the Sacred Gear was highly limited except for the part where it granted complete control of ice. Only one person would know more. "Fuck. I need to call that Fallen bastard."

"Hey Lavinia, Mephisto! You guys done i—" Whatever Harry wanted to say stopped dead in his mouth as he noticed the giant doll beside Lavinia.

His eyes widened as he pointed at the doll, his mouth opening and closing rapidly in surprise and awe. "That's not a Sacred Gear! That's... That's… a motherfucking Stand!"

Lavinia and the doll looked at Harry in utter confusion. "What?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Footnote 1: I just want to expand on the idea that Longinus Class Sacred Gears allow their users to break the laws of science and magic. To my knowledge, though feel free to correct me if otherwise, they cannot do so in canon. I did this because I personally felt that some of the Longinus abilities, especially from what I read on the wiki (looking at you, Absolute Demise) could easily be replicated either by everyday magic and/or other Sacred Gears, which would not explain why this particular type of Sacred Gear is a potential god-slayer but others are not.
> 
> Footnote 2: Mephisto saying the word 'god' and not being harmed by it. As far as this fic is concerned, only the Biblical name of the Biblical God can be harmful to Devils, the reason being that humans have used the word 'god' so many times and in vain, that the word has lost its power.


	3. Chapter 3

Azazel was a man of many talents. A twelve-winged Fallen Angel, who was hailed as the first of his kind. Well, if you ignore his eldest brother. But that guy was an asshole to the highest degree, so Azazel didn't think about him much.

That being said, he was at wit's end with dealing with Shemhazai. They may be the best of friends, but Shemhazai's ideas could be very… tone deaf. And possibly offensive.

Never before had he come up with something stupid like this, however. They were sitting in the cafeteria of the Grigori Headquarters, in a desolate part of Greenland. They were having coffee, given it was five thirty in the evening. Well, calling it a headquarters wasn't exactly accurate. Grigori was a lot more informal than the Angels and the Devils.

"Gonna tell me yes, right?" Shemhazai grinned. "I mean, we should totally name our race that."

"Give the Fallen Angel race that asanine name?" Azazel snapped. "Why?!"

"You are just being uptight! Think about it!" Shemhazai countered. "We are creatures of the sky! We go—"

"Up in the air, yes that much is fine. The next part, however..." Azazel muttered.

"Never before has that made sense! That's why we should call ourselves Air-ians! Beings who rule the air!"

"Gonna have to tell you... no.…" Azazel muttered.

"Let me explain this further," Shemhazai countered.

"You don't have to. I am not agreeing to that. Not one person is going to agree to that. Now you need to stay down on the ground, figuratively speaking."

"Down on the ground? Why? I am a proud Air-ian!"

This is what Azazel meant by tone deaf. He then noticed a beautiful woman walk in the cafeteria. Her long purple hair was loose, and her form-fitting gray dress left nothing to imagination. Her name was Penemue, and her perversion rivalled his own. More often than not, they warmed each other's beds, but it was just sex. She had made that much pretty clear.

"Penemue!" Shemhazai greeted her. "Back me up here. What do you think will strike fear in our enemies? Fallen Angels? Or the superior Air-ian race?"

Penemue's expression turned into a horrified look. "Shemhazai, please tell me that you don't want us to be called—"

"He does," Azazel muttered.

Shemhazai looked at both of them, confused. "What's the matter with it? We'll be Air-ians! I even have an idea where we can send our recruits to camps! And another plan where we show the world the wonders of our great Air-ian race, which I call the Final So—"

Thankfully Azazel's phone rang at that time. "Hello?"

The other two Fallen Angels looked at Azazel, wondering who called him.

"You have a what?… Ohh, boy, do I!… What do you mean I must confess that I knocked up your daughter! We were in an orgy! Could have been anyone else!… Ok, sure, I was the only man there, but my point still stands, Mephisto!… No, I don't have the other girls' numbers. But I do have a coupon for Chipotle!… Obviously it does not work on Burger King… Fine, I'll tell my guys to hack Tinder for you if you want.…Kay, see you in a bit. Caio!"

Azazel turned to his friends, "Gotta go, important things to do."

"More important than Air-ians?!" Shemhazai yelled.

Penemue palmed her face.

As soon as Azazel left, Kokabiel entered the room. It is said that he almost died of laughter when he heard of Shemhazai's plans.

Azazel landed outside of Mephisto's mansion in the Black Forest. The teleportation wasn't quick enough to get out of Shemhazai's moronic plan that was sure to offend a lot of people.

He was a bit surprised at the lack of security, but it also made sense that no one in their right mind would want to invade Mephisto's house. The old devil was extremely proficient with his magic, and wasn't an Ultimate Class Devil for show. Given the time difference, it was around nine thirty in the night. That meant that Mephisto would be more powerful, given that he was a creature of the Dark.

Which was why he had made it a point to bring his Artificial Sacred Gear, the Downfall Dragon Spear.

'Gods, what a stupid name,' Fafnir grumbled from it.

He ignored his Dragon friend. Downfall Dragon Spear was a badass name!

'It sounds like it was named by a halfwit with a stutter.'

Azazel knew that he should not have allowed the Golden Dragon to watch Game of Thrones. Especially given when Fafnir began to rampage in South America after the last season.

As soon as he entered the house, he smiled widely at his welcoming party. There was a sixteen year old boy with messy black hair and emerald green eyes, with a muscular, toned body. He wore lightly armored red shirt with black and green highlights, and blue jeans.

The boy's eyes widened as he Azazel.

"Fafnir? Why are you here?" a voice growled from his left arm, a green glowing circle forming on it.

"I was promised treasures well beyond my expectations, Ddraig." Fafnir said from behind Azazel, a purple orb appearing in the air.

"You are the Red Dragon Emperor!" Azazel exclaimed. This day was getting better! The wielder of Absolute Demise and the Boosted Gear in the same house?! Now he just needed to see how he compared with Vali.

The boy glared at his arm. "Ddraig, whatever happened to let's keep a low profile! You ass!"

"Sorry, Harry. But Fafnir is an old friend."

Harry shook his head and then looked at Azazel. "You must be 'that Fallen bastard' as Mephisto says it."

Azazel barked out a laugh. He then bowed dramatically. "Azazel, is my name."

"Mine's Harry. And I am not going to bow."

Azazel then looked around. "So, where is he?"

"Inside, in the training area. And what treasure did you promise Fafnir?"

Azazel smirked as began to follow Harry. "Riches well be—"

"Penemue's g-string. Preferably used."

Azazel stumbled. While that was what he had promised that perverted dragon, no way he was going to ever say it out loud. It was his turn to glare at his dragon. "Could you not say that out loud?!"

Harry then looked at the purple orb. It didn't surprise him that Fafnir took the shape of a purple orb. Most Dragon Kings could transform into other forms, though they were mostly human forms. Perhaps this purple orb was unique to Fafnir. "Wait. According to the old legend, you were killed by Siegfried with the Balmung. How are you here?"

Fafnir then told his tale as to how he went on a rampage. When he woke up, apparently he had been killed by Siegfried, but Odin had revived him.

They then entered the training room, where Lavinia and Mephisto were sitting.

"Mephisto, you old devil! You hid this from me!" Azazel grinned as he waved, then gestured at Harry.

Mephisto glared at his star pupil. "Harry. What the fuck have I told you about your secret identity? We even went through all that trouble to put that illusion to hide your draconic traits!"

"Forgive him Mephisto. I revealed myself. Fafnir is also here."

Mephisto rubbed his forehead in frustration. "Why is Fafnir here?"

Azazel smirked as he revealed his Sacred Gear in its sealed state. "Behold! My magnum opus! The Downfall Dragon Spear, an artificial sacred gear! I formed a pact with Fafnir, and now he resides here."

Mephisto raised a brow. "Trying to copy dear old daddy, are we?"

Azazel was visibly disappointed at the lack of reaction. "Well, not exactly. But kind of."

Mephisto waved his hand. "Harry, leave us. And you, Azazel. Tell me everything you know about the Absolute Demise."

"My name is Lavinia!" Lavinia said as Harry shrugged and left. "Nice to meet you, uhh, Lord?"

Azazel shook his head. "No, don't call me lord. You must the holder of the Absolute Demise. But I won't do it for free, you know. I want some information."

Mephisto raised a brow. "Oh? What kind?"

"First. The Red Dragon. How powerful is he? And second," at this Azazel got serious. "I want to know what the sisters of the Lucifer and Leviathan are doing in a small city in Japan."

Mephisto looked confused. "What the Gremory and Sitri brats are doing? How would I know?"

"You may play that 'old hermit' act when concerning the Devils, but I know that you have eyes and ears down there. And you are rather influential yourself, no matter how much you deny it. So, Mephisto, why are two High Class devils, the hieresses of their clans, and not to mention, the sisters of two of the four Satans, in the human world?" Azazel asked.

Lavinia looked from one man to the other. The tension between them was getting thicker.

Mephisto sighed. "I really don't know. Perhaps they are in the human world to build up their own peerages. And I doubt that Sirzechs or Serafall have left them without any protection. In case you try something."

Azazel shook his head. "I won't. But I know someone who might. And one final thing. I was also contacted by some Devils who had hid a young girl, a half-Leviathan. She is under some sleeping curse, that no one in my organisation can get rid of."

"And you think I care about some random Leviathan spawn?" Mephisto said. "How does that benefit me in any manner, apart from you asking that as a price?"

Azazel smirked. "If my hunch is right, then she holds Nereid Kyrie."

That got Mephisto's attention. "Alright. After we're done here, let's see what we can do. Lavinia, show him your Sacred Gear."

Lavinia nodded as the creepy doll that was the manifestation of her Sacred Gear appeared behind her.

Harry was dumbfounded when he entered his room. The reason was the sight in front of him.

Sapphire stood in the middle, just in front of the bed. Her long dark hair was loose, and her sapphire-blue eyes were fixed on him. She wore a thin silk robe that left her ample cleavage on full display. She sauntered towards Harry, a sultry smile playing on her lips.

"S-Sapphire? What are you—"

"Shhh. Someone told me that I should show you that what we feel for each other is more than just our allures attraction." Sapphire said as she pressed a finger on his lips. A wave of her hand shut the door behind them.

Harry stammered a bit. "Wait. Where's Kuroka?"

Sapphire's smile widened. "Don't worry about her."

Kuroka was in another room, trying to get out of it, but was locked in. The magical lock won't wear out for a few hours.

"She's around," Sapphire said as she pressed herself against him. She felt herself become more and more aroused as she felt his toned muscles. She leaned into him, "But why are you thinking of her when I'm here?"

Harry was desperately trying to regain his senses. He had long since given up on Li'l Harry from waking up, especially given that he could feel her arousal from her emotions. Her body felt wonderful pressed against his own, and her scent was intoxicating.

Of course, he was well aware of his own feelings towards her. She was his very first friend, best friend, and rival all packed up in an amazing package. Both of them knew practically everything about each other, from their favourite colours to their Pornhub search histories. Or in his case, all the six digits he had stored up in a folder.

Or the hentai he had downloaded. It was stored in a folder within the GTA V game-files, masked by the large size of the game itself. Only amateurs used the old 'homework' folder trick.

Sapphire really enjoyed watching the lesbian section which had also stopped him from making any moves on her. The last thing you wanted to find out after a heart-felt confession was that the girl you love just happens to be into girls. (the author was definitely not speaking from experience, no matter who may claim otherwise)

"You are right," Harry muttered. "So... uhhh, I… does this… I mean is this a confession?"

Sapphire answered the question by stealing a kiss. "Yes, I guess it is. I really like you. Maybe even love you."

Harry smiled as he tried to ignore his heated face. "I-I-I really lov-I mean like you too," he said.

Sapphire smiled as she let her robes drop.

"What are you doing?"

She smirked sexily. "Celebrating my newfound relationship status. Join me?"

Harry looked at her in confusion and arousal. Confurousal?

"Sex on confession? Really?"

Sapphire ran a finger down her body. "You're declining?"

"Not saying no, but surprised, that's all."

"Harry, dear, you of all people should know." Sapphire said. "As Mephisto says, Societal norms are bullshit. So strip."

Harry smiled. He did as she asked. Sapphire smirked at his erection.

"Not bad. There are condoms in the drawer. I chose multiple flavours. Feel free to pick any."

Harry nodded. "Wait. These are bought and not transfigured/conjured right?"

Sapphire rolled her eyes. "Yes, I bought them from the nearby town. I didn't want to ruin the fun half way through."

Irma had essentially drilled into their heads the dangers of using transfigured condoms, or any transfigured item in sex when she had given them The Talk, especially if they reverted back into what they were in the middle of the act. The example she gave them as a deterrent had given Harry nightmare for weeks, even though he didn't know if it was true or not.

He certainly didn't even want to transfigure a piranha for anything else after that.

After picking up a condom, he joined her in the bed. He didn't even know that Bertie Botts made condoms.

The first time was all sorts of awkward for both of them, despite their prior confidence. However, due to their strong magic and physical prowess, neither were satisfied with just one round, and ended round going multiple rounds. By the third, both were quite comfortable with each other's bodies, learning and figuring out what made the other tick. In the fourth, Harry's draconic nature to dominate came out, but Sapphire didn't let him dominate her easily. Both were finally spent by the fifth, going to sleep in each other's arms.

Harry and Sapphire were already fast asleep when Kuroka crawled into the room. She growled to herself; she wanted that. The smell of sex was turning her on quite a bit, and she thanked her lucky stars that it wasn't her time of heat.

"Stupid Veela," Kuroka muttered as she crawled into the bed, and spooned Harry. The boy was too deep into his sleep to realize that she was spooning him. Kuroka smiled and nibbled on his ear, playing with his hair as she too, drifted to sleep.

Harry groaned tiredly as he sat down for breakfast the next morning. When they had woken up, Kuroka had practically demanded sex, which had led to a threesome. Luckily Sapphire had bought a whole pack of condoms, otherwise he would have been very worried.

He was way too young to be a father.

Both of his girlfriends? Lovers? whatever, he'd figure that out later, were currently asleep after he had fucked them unconscious, something he did know was possible in real life. He probably should not have used a boost on his own stamina.

"Good morning," Lavinia greeted as she joined him on the table, with her plate of omelettes and toast. "Didn't sleep well?"

"Not exactly…Sapphire and Kuroka wore me out…" Harry said, not realizing the mistake he had made. In his defence, he had his head down on the table and he hadn't exactly registered fully who was in front of him.

Lavinia felt her whole world shatter. "Wh-wh-what?"

Harry was too tired to notice Lavinia's reaction. "Oh yes. I didn't even know such positions were possible..."

"You-you-you slept with both of them?"

"Hmm?" Harry's head rose, his eyes meeting hers. It finally sunk in who he was talking to. 'Well shit. I'm in too deep, now...'

"And both of them are okay with this?!" Lavinia yelled, angry, sad, and jealous. "This is so wrong!"

"What is?" A new voice said. Mephisto yawned as he joined them.

"Harry slept with Sapphire and Kuroka!" Lavinia yelled.

Mephisto raised a brow. "And you're sad that you weren't invited?"

A large blush rose on her face till she was as red as a tomato. "No! No, no, no no, no-no-no-no, NO!"

Harry was too tired so he put his head back down on the desk.

Mephisto barked out a laugh. "That sounds like denial."

"No its not! But.." Lavinia trailed off. To be fair, there was a small part of her that wasn't opposed to the idea.

"Girl, life for a human is too short to wonder about 'what if' and 'it's wrong' or something. If you want in on it, then make sure you don't regret it after. Looking at Harry, he certainly doesn't."

Lavinia looked down at her plate. "But… one man and multiple girls? Isn't that cheating?"

"No, that's called a harem. Quite common in the Underworld, and practiced by men and women alike. After all, of every one of them is consenting, who are you to judge?" Mephisto's question made Lavinia rethink her stance on the matter.

"Please don't encourage her," Harry groaned out. He certainly won't be opposed as well, Lavinia was a beautiful girl, but right now he was afraid that she, like Kuroka, would demand sex. Once again, he was too tired to think straight.

"The choice is mine and my own?" Lavinia questioned, a bit hopefully.

Mephisto nodded. "Just remember, if they force you to do something you don't want, then you can simply freeze Harry's balls. The Absolute Demise will ensure that no magic can unfreeze them."

Harry instinctively covered his crotch.

Lavinia nodded with a smirk. "Of course!"

"Encourage more domestic abuse, why don't you," Harry grumbled.

"You need more sleep, it seems," Mephisto said, ignoring the jab. "Either way, you have to come with me to the Grigory HQ in Greenland."

"Why?" Harry asked. His voice was still muffled because his head was planted on the table.

"Because of a part of the deal I made with Azazel. I also had to tell him how powerful you are, though luckily he merely wanted that information, and not demonstration," Mephisto answered. Then he turned to Lavinia. "Practice what Azazel told you. He even e-mailed me everything else you need to know about your Sacred Gear, which I have then forwarded to you. Inform Sapphire of this when she wakes up. She will help you."

Not giving her a chance to reply, Mephisto pulled Harry up, displaying a show of strength than surprised Lavinia, and teleported the two of them.

It was Azazel's turn to welcome Mephisto and Harry. The Fallen Angel led them inside, into a highly advanced medical facility.

"She's practically sleeping, but the curse she was put under makes her unable to wake up. At first we thought it was a Draught of Living Death, but detoxification had no effect," a doctor explained as he handed Mephisto the medical reports on Azazel's orders.

Mephisto waved them aside, placing a hand on the girl's forehead. She was beautiful, with purple hair and a voluptuous vody. She looked completely serene as she slept, as if she had reached the perfect level of comfort and peace.

"Ah. I see. You must have used every single curse breaking spell ever, correct?" Mephisto asked the doctor.

"Well, the curse breakers did so. I am just a regular doctor."

Harry looked at Azazel. The Fallen Angel looked back, knowing the question Harry wanted to ask. "Hmm? Oh, we hire anyone and everyone. The Grigory isn't just filled with Fallen Angels. Dr. Harrison here is just very good and is highly knowledgeable."

Harrison didn't react to the praise, instead keeping his attention on what Mephisto was doing.

"Azazel… I'm surprised you didn't catch this. Your hunch is correct. She does hold Nereid Kyrie. The Sacred Gear itself is what is keeping her in the sleep." Mephisto said as he lifted his hand from her forehead.

Azazel was surprised. "Really? So all we need to do is forcefully activate the Gear?"

Mephisto nodded. Nereid Kyrie had hypnotic abilities that could even affect Dragons. That was the reason why he had brought Harry with him, to confirm if Harry would be affected by its presence. However, it also came with a drawback. It's hypnosis could be used against the user.

Azazel laughed at his own stupidity. "Oh, father! I could have just woken her up all this time! Hahaha! Anyway, do you want to do the honors?"

Mephisto shook his head. "Harry, get on with it."

Harry looked surprised. "Why me?"

"Consider it a test. Also, Dragons are more receptive to the Nereid Kyrie, but the vice versa is also true. An extremely powerful dragon such as Ddraig will be able to get past the enchantment without any problems. Just enter her consciousness, and see if you can kickstart her Sacred Gear. If not, then try to outright kill her, but don't actually do it. That trauma might just be enough for her to wake up." Mephisto explained.

Harry nodded and approached her. He held her hand, and sent his consciousness into her. It was a very advanced form of legillemency, but a natural empath such as Harry could perform it with very little effort.

Harry was surrounded by a large ocean. He was underwater, but could breathe fairly easily. A melodious singing was all he could hear. It called out to him. He swam, and swam until he reached the center.

Or what he assumed was the center.

The girl who was singing seemed like she was calling out to him. Harry couldn't see her eyes in the outside world, but here they were glowing lavender. Lavender particles of energy surrounded her.

The girl stopped singing when she saw him.

"Hello," she greeted. Her voice was soft, and just as pleasing to hear as her song. "You must be here to wake me up."

"Yes," Harry said. "I'm Harry Potter."

The girl smiled. "My name is Ingvild. I have been waiting for you."

"Uhh you knew I was coming?"

Ingvild shook her head. "Not necessarily you. But someone who would come to wake me."

"How did you fall asleep anyway?" Harry asked.

"I was practicing the use of my Sacred Gear, but it backfired. I hypnotised myself. So outside interference is required. At least that is what my Sacred Gear tells me."

Harry nodded. "I see. Does it know what I should do?"

Ingvild blushed lightly, her eyes not meeting his. "You need to… provide energy of your own to me… the best and easiest way to do so is transferring your mana the tantric way…"

Harry blushed as well, and even more so at her bashful tone. "Eh, what? I have a much easier way to—"

"Am… am I that undesirable?" She questioned, and Harry could see a tear in her eyes, despite the fact that they were surrounded by water.

"No, that is not it! You are very beautiful!" Harry quickly said, hoping that it would stop her from crying.

"Then… why… you must be gay." Her tone immediately turned mischievous at the last part.

Harry fixed her with a deadpan look. "Ha-ha. I see I have been had."

Ingvild giggled. "It was funny to me, though. At least I got you to confess that you find me beautiful. You do need to transfer some energy to me, however. Perhaps you do want—"

"Let's not go there," Harry said just as quick. "Ddraig?"

Ingvild watched in surprise and a tad bit of fear as a large red dragon with green eyes came out of nowhere.

"TRANSFER!" It roared as a claw touched her forehead.

Then all turned white.

Harry and Mephisto returned to their home, along with Ingvild. To Harry's not-so- secret delight and Mephisto's annoyance. The girl, who had orange eyes unlike her form in her consciousness, had told Azazel that she would be going with Harry and wasn't taking no for an answer.

Azazel only released her into Mephisto's custody after she threatened to contact the Devil Government that she was being held here against her will. She may be a Leviathan, but the Devils hated the Fallen Angels more than they hated the Old Satan Faction.

And Azazel knew that Sirzechs would have his head if he found out that a Devil girl, of about his sister's age, was being held by the Grigori. His only problem was that her Sacred Gear would be out of his reach, but luckily she had agreed to a compromise that she would inform Azazel of her abilities and their progress bi-weekly.

Mephisto's annoyance was one extra brat at his house.

That's it.

When they returned home, however, there were a few uninvited guests.

Mephisto only recognised one of them. And he grew extremely afraid when he saw Mephisto.

And all of them were arguing with Sapphire. Luckily no one had resorted to violence. Yet.

Flaring his power slightly, he brought all their attention to him. "Now. Before I end you all, mind explaining why you morons are disturbing me?"

"Well, you see, Lord Mephisto," said Albus Dumbledore. "The Goblet of Fire chose Harry Potter and now he must compete in the Triwizard Tournament or lose his magic."

Harry blinked as he stepped forward. "That's impossible. I can't lose my magic!"

The other two members present looked at him, whereas Dumbledore kept his attention fixed on Mephisto. He did not acknowledge Harry. There would be time for that later. He needed to ensure that Mephisto would not kill any of them. Him, particularly.

Barty Crouch and Ludo Bagman could die for all he cared. They would not be missed. The former was an idiot who threw so many people into Azkaban without a trial, such as one Sirius Black, regardless of their guilt. The later was even a bigger idiot who gambled away all of his money. And the Ministry money that was given to him. He was the sole reason why the Goblet did not have adequate security.

If Dumbledore cared enough, he would have put a larger amount of protection than an age line. The fact that no one was able to get past it was proof to him that all of his students were idiots.

All they needed to do was throw their name in from out of the age line.

"Blimey! It's! Harry! Potter!" Bagman yelled out each word.

"You are Harry Potter?" Crouch asked.

"Uh, yes?"

"Then you must compete in the Triwizard Tournament. Your name came out of the goblet and therefore you signed a magical contract with magic itself. If you don't compete, then your magic is forfeit." Crouch stated matter-of-factly.

Mephisto and Harry, along with Sapphire, looked at the man incredulously.

"Are you for real? I can't sign my magic away without my own consent dumbass!" Harry said. "And even if I sighed such a contract, I still would not lose my magic, as that is literally impossible to do so!"

Harry had found out about this when he had tried adding an anti-mage enchantment to his demonic sword, wanting it to function like the Origin Bullets that Kiritsugu Emiya from his favourite anime used. It might destroy a magical enchantment, but if used on a human, it would not take away their ability to use magic.

"You have, though," Crouch stated yet again.

"Don't bother, Harry. I have been trying to tell him that ever since they got here, but it's like arguing against a wall." Sapphire said. "And who's this?" She added when she saw Ingvild who was just observing everyone.

Crouch turned to Sapphire. "I would not expect a lesser creature such as yourself to understand."

Sapphire just sighed. "And he keeps calling me a lesser creature." To be fair, he had started to call her such ever since that old man, Dumbledore, guessed what she was.

Mephisto was getting angry. First of all, these morons dared approach him. Secondly they tried to use a bullshit reason to get Harry. There was also that whole insult to Sapphire, but that part was hers to deal with. He was not going to 'defend her honor' or anything like that. Sapphire was completely capable of doing so herself if she pleased.

"You there. You seem to think that you have some sort of authority here. That may fly in your backward country, but you are here on MY property. I have no problems with ending your sorry existence at this instance. Vacate immediately." Mephisto glared.

Crouch sweated in fear. That man… no, that was no man. Whatever that was, it was going to end him. He had faced You-know-who once, and the Dark Lord seemed like a play-ground bully compared to this.

"Wait," Dumbledore said suddenly. "Perhaps I need to mention that the prize is a thousand galleons?"

From what he knew of Devils, they were highly selfish and greedy. Surely they would be bribed by money.

And sure enough, that immense pressure, which had rendered Bagman unconscious, disappeared.

"Harry, win that tournament."

Harry looked at Mephisto. Sapphire looked at Mephisto. Crouch looked at Mephisto.

"Why?" Harry asked.

Mephisto gave him a cross look. "Remember my four credit cards that you maxed out for something called a 'Jalter?' Well. Now you can repay that full amount."

Harry refused to meet his eyes. "A man of culture will argue that it was a justifiable thing to do."

"Well I don't care. Win that thousand galleons for me. That's almost five kilograms of pure gold."

Harry and Sapphire, and even Ingvild understood that sentiment. "Well, when you put it like that..."

Crouch then looked at… whatever Mephisto was. "Erm. Yes, well, there is the matter of representation. Which school will Mr. Potter be representing?"

Mephisto looked at the thin man. "The Mephisto School for Exceptional Mages."

Crouch shook his head. "No such school exists, and there needs to be—"

Mephisto waved his hand as a clear ball appeared in his hand. He ignored the looks of shock and surprise from the morons of Magical UK. Another man appeared in the clear ball.

Harry knew this to be a communications device, that Mephisto hated to use, but only did so if the opposite person did not have a phone.

"L-Lord Mephisto," the aged man, who had a bald head and wore thin spectacles, from the ball greeted in fear. "What can I do for you?"

Mephisto smirked. "Ah, yes. Roland Lang. I want you to register the Mephisto School for Exceptional Mages as a magical school. Immediately. And its admission is by my explicit invitation only."

"At once, my lord."

The ball disappeared, as did the man.

Crouch and Dumbledore were mostly shocked. Well, more Crouch than Dumbledore. They had just witnessed Mephisto order the Grand Vazir of the ICW, the man who sat at the very top, the equivalent of the Secretary General of the ICW, like he was nothing more than a common servant.

"There. Problem solved."

Crouch nodded in shock. He should have just left this place alone. They were warned. First by Dumbledore, even though he decided to come here. Next by the German Ministry, who claimed that this part of the Black Forest was considered forbidden, and no one, not even their Minister, was allowed to come here.

He had ignored them, thinking that they were of lesser blood, and therefore, not worth it. He had been an utter fool.

Harry glared at Mephisto. "You can't just let me sit in one place, can you?"

"Oh be quiet. Why don't you take Sapphire and Kuroka with you? I'll even send Lavinia over." Mephisto said.

"Oooh, can I come too?" Ingvild said.

Mephisto waved his hand dismissively.

Finally, when the brats were all away he could throw a bunch of orgy parties without Irma yelling at him.

"Right." Dumbledore said slowly. "Harry, if you would, take this portkey. Once you and your friends are ready, then you can just say Hogwarts and it will take you there."

"Thanks," Harry said as he took the portkey. It was a small metal cube.

With that, he picked up Crouch and Bagman and used his own portkey to quickly get out of there before Mephisto decided to change his mind and kill them. He decided to save them as that way it would be a lot less headache for him, as he won't need to explain their disappearances.

Harry, Ingvild, and Mephisto finally entered the mansion. Ingvild went up to Sapphire.

"Sorry for not answering you before. I am Ingvild Leviathan. Harry's lover."

Harry choked on his spit as Mephisto laughed openly. The old devil then went inside to get himself a drink. It had been too long since he drank. Almost twelve hours.

"Really? Me too!" Sapphire said with a grin.

Ingvild deflated. "Aww, I wanted to make you jealous and angry!"

"Then try it again after you have actually slept with him." Sapphire countered.

Ingvild then turned to Harry, giving him a smile. "Why don't you take me to your room and ravish me? Then I can show this girl just how to do it better!"

Sapphire laughed. "Oh, I like you. And I'm sure Kuroka will too."

Harry just sighed in defeat. "I hate you. Both."

"Tell me that after you have been in me," Ingvild said without breaking a sweat.

"You know what. Let's go then. Let's see if you are merely teasing or if you are dead serious." Harry muttered. Given that she was a half-devil, her emotions were a bit harder to read, but he could tell that she was definitely lusting for him.

"Oh, Harry, if you want to make me blush," Ingvild said lowly, before she leaned in to whisper something in his ear.

Harry was dumbstruck. Whatever she whispered had caused his mind to crash.

"Oh, you got him good, sister," Sapphire grinned. She was honestly enjoying it with Ingvild's teasing of Harry. "So, what did you say?"

Ingvild smirked. "I just said that I don't mind role-playing."

"What? That's it?!" Sapphire said with faux anger. Well, some part was real in that she always wanted to embarrass Harry like that but never could. Both of them had enough dirt on each other to counter her every move.

"I know. So easy to fluster." Ingvild grinned, not revealing that she had told him that she didn't mind it if he told her to cosplay as Jalter when they went into his room.

When they had joined consciousness, by some fluke, Ingvild had gained a lot of knowledge about Harry, but for some reason Harry did not. She had used this to tease him, something that she enjoyed quite a bit. There was no denying that she was attracted to him by his dragonic aura, and it was especially powerful for her because of her dragon-oriented Sacred Gear.

Besides, she was joking about sleeping with him. Well, at least for now anyway.

Ingvild was dead-serious about the Jalter part, though.


	4. Chapter 4

Harry looked at himself in the mirror.

'I haven't slept for three days… why didn't anyone warn me?!'

His hair was a mess as always, and he could see his own tired green eyes. If he wasn't part dragon this would have had some effects on his head. Both the one on his shoulders and the one down below.

'If I complain about this… I'll be seen as a complete asshole. This is literally a case of the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak… they'll all laugh at me. Oh look, he is complaining about all the sex he's having. What a douche.'

'I can help with that.'

'Don't you start, Ddraig! This is partially your fault!'

'How is it my fault?'

'Because!' Harry huffed. This wasn't the way he thought it would be. All harem anime were bullshit! Why didn't they ever portray the part where the MC is tired as fuck but his girls aren't yet satisfied! Oh right. Harem MC's are denser than steel and never get together with their harems. Or even a single girl within the harem. To be fair, he should just consider himself lucky that Sapphire, Kuroka and Ingvild were more than happy to share. There were very little conflicts.

Lavinia had yet to join in, and Harry wasn't sure if she would or wouldn't. She was still conflicted, not that Harry minded if she ultimately declined. It was of course, entirely her decision.

'You literally used my powers to ensure that they were satisfied.'

Harry ignored the dragon. The worst was Ingvild. She wasn't even lying or joking about the cosplay. And somehow she stayed in character the whole time. It was… too delightful and good to be true. And her Sacred Gear. Goddamned hypnotic magic that bypassed all of his mental defences. No surprise there given that it could control Dragons. At least she decided on a safe word beforehand and he was in sufficient control to use it if he felt like it.

It was then a realization hit him.

'I'm not a harem protagonist...'

His hair was even covering his eyes.

'…I'm a hentai protagonist.'

The entire school of Hogwarts was filled with excitement.

The rumors were out of control. Ever since the Goblet had spat out Harry Potter's name, the rumor mill had exploded. The rumors of his demise were quickly put to rest, and new rumors of what he had been doing came to be spread instead. Repoters, ranging from the serious ones to sensationalists, were taking full advantage of the situation, and were at Hogwarts constantly.

There were some who claimed that he hated the Purebloods and that is why he never came to Hogwarts. Most of the people who supported this rumor were a small minority even among the Muggleborn, using the basis that Voldemort, a known Pureblood, having killed his parents.

There were those who thought that Harry Potter was being trained in secret against future Dark Lords, and the Goblet calling him was a sign that a new Dark Lord was rising. Some had even put a spin on this, claiming that Harry himself was the Dark Lord. The former rumor had the most support.

A single girl in Ravenclaw believed that Harry Potter was captured by the Heliopath army of the Ministry and the Goblet was trying to rescue him. Her statements went largely ignored.

No one even remembered the official story of Harry Potter being lost at sea. Except for one girl in Gryffindor. Her reminders of that went largely ignored.

Dumbledore paid these rumors no attention as he sat in his office with the Heads of Houses.

"When is the Potter brat arriving? It's nearly been a week since you gave him the portkey!"

"Patience, Severus," Dumbledore said. "I didn't exactly tell him what time or date he was supposed to be here. But that is not the reason why I have called you all here. The real reason is—"

It was at that moment, that a group of four people fell in the room. Dumbledore recognized them, well three of them, as the two girls that were with the Devil and Harry Potter himself. And fell into the room wasn't exactly accurate, as they were all standing when they appeared.

Well, there went the monthly meeting of the Heads of Houses. All of that will have to wait.

"Huh. This place is… neat," Harry said as he looked around. Dumbledore looked at them. The other teachers, bar one, were more than excited to see him, but Dumbledore stopped them from saying anything. Snape just scowled.

"Welcome, Harry Potter, to Hogwarts," Dumbledore said. "If you don't mind, who are your friends?"

"I'm Sapphire. This is Lavinia Reni," Sapphire introduced both of them, given that Lavinia was a bit shocked at all the moving portraits and the phoenix. The phoenix that was staring at them judgementally. It was unnerving. For his part, Harry idly wondered if he could somehow digitalize the phoenix's feathers. He needed them ingame.

"I'm Ingvild Ortlinde. So. This is Hogwarts?"

McGonagall took over. "Yes, this is. My name is Minerva Mcgonagall, and I teach transfiguration. You stand in the prestigious Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Surely your teacher told you about us."

Mephisto had, of course, to Harry and Sapphire. But that was so long ago that neither of them remembered any of it. But both of them were pretty sure that whatever Mephisto had told them was not very… polite to say in front of the professors who taught here.

And the less he said about the Pureblood ideology the better. Mephisto almost never brought it up, only telling them about how idiotic they were just yesterday.

Of course they didn't bring any of it up. It was borderline bigoted.

And Mephisto was very drunk.

That was the main reason everyone had disregarded his advice and opinions.

"Ahh, well, he might have mentioned it, in passing," Harry muttered. He didn't know if they were aware of Mephisto. That old man who was wearing pajamas (at least he thought they were; no way his work clothes were that… color-mismatched) probably was, given his genuine fear when they last met.

"Mentioned in passing?!" McGonagall said incredulously. "This is the best magical school in the world!"

Dumbledore himself wasn't sure of that anymore. Especially given that Mephisto had formed his own school, which would, no doubt, overtake Hogwarts. Once again, Dumbledore didn't particularly care.

"I'm sure that their teacher meant no offence," Dumbledore said smoothly, despite the fact all the parties that had met the Devil would know better. "But, I must ask, why did you wait for a whole week?"

"It's because he's as arrogant as his father, thinking that the whole world would stop for him," Snape said snidely.

Harry looked at the greased man. His eyes were black, and held a lot of anger. Directed at him, and even at the man himself. Harry could feel even some regret underlying that anger. "You knew my father?" Harry asked, mostly to rile him up.

It might be one of his negative qualities, but he never had given much thought about his parents. He felt that his life was his own, and whoever his parents were didn't matter to him. Besides, he had a mother-figure in Irma. And no father figure.

"We all did, Mr. Potter," said a small squeaky voice, alerting the new comers to the very short man. "He was a student here, as was your mother. Sorry, I didn't introduce myself. I am Filius Flitwick, and I am a professor of Charms."

Harry then paused. "Oh right. Now I remember. You have this whole system where every single mage within a locality/country goes to the same magical school!"

"That is a simplified way of putting it, but yes," Dumbledore said. "But let us move on. Now that you are here, I must inform you about the Wand Weighing Ceremony that is going to take place in two weeks, in the afternoon. I will send someone over to fetch you before it begins. Will your… teacher… be joining us?"

Harry shook his head. "Wouldn't count on it. And wands? I didn't know we'd need them."

Sapphire nodded. "Indeed. We haven't used ours at all."

"I don't even have one," Lavinia muttered.

"Same," Ingvild said.

All the teachers, sans Dumbledore, looked at them in shock.

"What nonsense, Potter! Not needing or using wands! Ridiculous!" the only hostile man said. The rest of them appeared to be too stunned to speak.

To be honest, Harry and Sapphire only had wands because Mephisto had them make their own when they were still children. He had explained that they were only useful in specific situations when precision and accuracy are required over anything else. He had also explained that the wand core must be compatible with their magic, and the wood did not matter. His point was proven when both of them had used the same wood, from one of the many trees that surrounded their home.

Sapphire's wand core was her own hair. Harry's wand had Tannin's scale. Dragons shed their scales too.

Both of these wands were in… neither of them remembered where they put them, but it was somewhere within their rooms. They were pretty much unused, too.

"Believe what you want, but fact is fact," Sapphire countered. "Anyway, where will we be staying?"

"Yes, of course. Your quarters have been prepared," Dumbledore said. He was the only one who fully believed them. "Minerva, perhaps you can escort our new guests to their quarters?"

"Yes, of course, Headmaster," she said, still in shock. Who forgets their wands when going to a magical tournament! Their teacher was a very incompetent one!

"Here you go," McGonagall said as she opened the door, that was covered by a large portrait. It was one of the talking portriats, this one depicting a well dressed bard, and opened up on a password, which was 'Adventor'. Lavinia was very surprised at that. Sure, the portraits in the office were also moving, but none of them talked. At least they didn't talk when they was there.

The inside was a spacious room with a fireplace and a seating area, and a passageway that led to the bedrooms in the back. Everything was in varying shades of red, gold, blue, and some green thrown in. All in all, it looked comfy and cosy enough.

"Thank you," Sapphire said as they walked in.

"If there is anything you need, just ask, and one of the house elves will bring it to you," The professor said. "I have to take my leave, now."

They all watched her go after she further explained that she'll send a prefect over to help them out with directions and the daily schedule.

It seemed she was still in a state of shock.

"So… this is Hogwarts," Ingvild said as she sat down on a sofa. Harry and Sapphire sat down in front of her, while Lavinia moved inside to explore.

"Yup. It also doesn't have any power outlets. We're going to have to rely on magic to charge our phones and Sapphire's laptop. Do we even have a signal?" Harry asked. The last part was very important. His login streak hung in the balance.

"Surprisingly, yes," Sapphire replied as she pulled out her phone. "Good strength too."

"Then call Kuroka and find out how her trial is going!" Ingvild said. Kuroka's trial date had come up just two days ago. Apparently Beelzebub and Lucifer were more than interested in her plight. No one knew what was going to happen for certain.

Calling across dimensions was possible, but only certain carriers allowed it. These were all owned by Devils. Which also explained why some of them had questionable customer service.

Sapphire nodded as she called their mutual lover.

Harry sighed as he got up and moved inside, where the bedrooms were. The corridor that led to the bedrooms wasn't long, but it divided the back area into two wings, each side having two bedrooms. Sensing Lavinia in the right side, Harry turned left. No doubt each side was meant to be for a different gender. The fact that this was going to be ignored was not lost on him.

It wasn't very large, but there were two cupboards and a two poster beds. There was a door to the side that Harry assumed led to the bathroom.

He brought out his luggage from his pockets, all of which was shrunk and lightened. He immediately began to set everything up. All of them had carried their stuff this way, except for Ingvild who had put all of hers into a pocket dimension.

Harry and Sapphire could do the same, but Harry always felt that pocket dimensions were unreliable, and Sapphire just didn't like using one. Lavinia was still a beginner, so she could not form one yet.

Mephisto had told them not to come back to his mansion for at least a few months or until he told them otherwise. And after he had revealed about his plans of multiple orgy parties, all of them had used every single locking magic they knew to lock their rooms.

"Harry?"

He looked back, to see Lavinia standing in the doorway. "Huh?"

The blonde girl entered the room, "What were those portraits?"

"Oh right. They are painted with magical paint. It gives them the personality of the person they were based on, but it's not always very accurate to the actual person. After all, the painter must know exactly what personality the subject has, and try to incorporate it into the painting to the best of his abilities," Harry said.

Lavinia nodded.

Harry smiled at her. "You're still a bit low on confidence?"

She looked down. "Was it that obvious?"

"Empath, remember?" Harry said as he invited her to sit down.

"I just… none of you are even surprised at all these magical stuff around us. I know it's stupid of me, especially given that is only been a few weeks since I started with my magical training," Lavinia said softly. "But all of you are so far ahead that I can't help but compare myself to you all and feel… lost because of my own ignorance. It makes me feel like I'm an idiot."

Harry decided to let her get it out.

"And even Ingvild. I thought that I would have at least someone else who would be as… ignorant, I suppose, as I am, but I'm quite sure that she knows at least as much as you do."

Harry smiled gently at her. "Ignorance isn't the same as stupidity. Ignorance can be because of circumstances, but stupidity is almost always by choice."

"Get that off a fortune cookie?" Lavinia muttered dryly.

"Our illustrious teacher, actually."

Lavinia looked at him surprised. Mephisto had never spoken like a wise old man at least in her presence. Someone might say otherwise when he was advising her on her relationship problems with Harry, but she was going to ignore that. As well as the relationship advice.

"Yeah, he has his rare moments," Harry said with a small laugh. "So don't worry if you don't know about, well, anything. You can always ask. Well, probably ask Sapphire, though. She can explain things a lot more better."

Lavinia tilted her head. "Your explanation was also quite clear, though."

"Thanks," Harry replied. "But in all seriousness. Don't you ever think that any of us are going to think less of you just because you don't know something."

"Thank you so much for that," Lavinia said happily.

"No problem! Let's go and find out what happened to Kuroka," Harry said as he began to walk towards the hall.

Lavinia nodded as she joined him.

"Oh hey, you two," Sapphire said. "Kuroka's still in her trial. I don't know what is taking them so long... But then again, it is technically a murder trial, so that might be the reason."

Harry sighed. "Can't be helped then."

"So how are the rooms?" Ingvild asked.

"Not too bad, but I'm assuming that they're the same with two beds in each room," Harry replied.

"Yup," Lavinia confirmed. "And a total of four bedrooms. This almost like a regular apartment. Except there is no kitchen."

"Dibs on Harry's room," Sapphire grinned as Ingvild pouted.

"You had him since your childhood, let me have him now!" She countered.

"You should have called dibs then."

Lavinia and Harry grew increasingly uncomfortable for different reasons as the two other girls began to argue amongst themselves. Lavinia wondered if she should bring up that the rooms weren't that far apart. It then hit her that these rooms didn't have any sound proofing. Harry did look more and more tired day by day, and Lavinia could make a very accurate guess why.

Her sanity wasn't going to last, was it?

"Don't I get a say in this?" Harry asked.

"If you had your way, we'd both be out of your room!" Sapphire said as she turned her attention to Harry.

"Indeed," Ingvild stated. "Though if she comes here you'd let Kuroka in. That cat likes to cuddle more than she likes to ride you, in my opinion."

"Well, you're not wrong," Harry muttered. He didn't voice out loud that they could share the room. He needed that sleep. He just needed to figure out how to go about it.

Fortunately for him, the bard that was on the main door came into another portrait inside, informing them that there were two students outside.

"Do you think he'll be into Quidditch?" Ronald Weasley, universally known as Ron, asked his fellow prefect as they walked towards one of the guest quarters. His red hair was cut short, but his uniform was untidy as ever. He was tall and lanky, which was surprising given his eating habits. Hermione was sure that he would have been much more… healthier… than he was.

"That's what you care about, Ronald?" Hermione Granger replied with a question of her own. "Not where's he's been, what has he been doing, or anything else, but does he like Quidditch?" A stark contrast to Ron, Hermione's bushy hair was long, and her uniform was the pinnacle of tidiness. A book was tucked in her arm.

"You are right, of course, he's the Boy-Who-Lived, of course he likes Quidditch." Ron said confidently.

"Not my point!" Hermione all but yelled. Luckily they were almost at the guest quarters. "He was lost at sea, and now he suddenly shows up for the Triwizard Tournament? Does that not bother you?"

"That was just a rumor, though! Oh look! There's Beedle the Bard!"

Hermione shook her head. To be honest that wasn't Beedle. Most people assumed he was, mostly because he was the only bard in the entire school. This particular rumor was one that was accepted as 'fact' by nearly everyone.

"I am a Gryffindor Prefect, Hermione Granger, here for Harry Potter on Professor McGonagall's instructions," Hermione said as she stood in front of the bard.

He nodded, "Very well. I shall inform him of your request to meet him."

Hermione didn't know what to expect. Professor McGonagall had pulled her aside and had indirectly told her that Harry Potter may not have had the best of magical training. Apparently his teacher had not even bothered to teach them any practical magic, as Harry himself had told the Professors that he had never used his wand.

And now he was being forced to participate in the Triwizard Tournament. She did not know whether to feel sorry for him, or to pity him, or to hope for the best. Obviously she hadn't told Ron any of this. That boy had no tact.

They waited a moment before the bard opened the door, allowing them inside.

They were greeted by four people. Three girls and one boy. Much to Hermione's chagrin, Ron was immediately dumbstruck by the sole brunette of the group. Even Hermione wouldn't deny that she was drop-dead gorgeous, and she could easily identify that the brunette was a Veela. Especially after being around that Fleur girl from Beauxbatons.

The other two didn't stick out that much, if you didn't count that one of the girls had purple hair and orange eyes. And the last one was just a blue-eyed blonde. Also if you ignored that they were all quite attractive.

That just left the sole male of the group, and Hermione found herself blush slightly. There was just something about him that seemed to pull her in. Quickly composing herself, she looked at him, and said, "You must be Harry Potter."

"Yup. That's me," Harry said.

"My name is Hermione Granger," Hermione said. "Pleased to meet you."

"And who's this creep that's staring at me?" the black haired girl, who had yet to introduce herself, said as she took a step back. Hermione could sympathise. If anyone stared at her the way Ron was staring, it would creep her out too.

"I-I-I'm Ron," he stuttered. "Are you a g-goddess?"

Hermione looked cautiously at the four of them, except for the Veela, all others had amused looks. She sighed. At least they weren't offended. To be fair, the Veela also didn't look that offended, just uncomfortable.

"I'm taken," She said, linking her arm with Harry's. Who was still amused.

Ron visibly deflated, but before he could say or do anything else, Hermione continued. "Professor McGonagall told us to show you all around, so that you know where everything is located."

They all nodded. "Sure. Oh right. I didn't introduce myself. My name is Ingvild Ortlinde. And don't mind Sapphire the goddess. She gets worshipped quite frequently." She ignored the hard glare Sapphire was giving her.

"I'm Lavinia Reni," The blonde stated, ignoring the blush of embarrassment on their faces.

"Great," Harry cut in. "Now that we all know each other, shall we get going?"

Hermione could only nod. Hopefully Ron won't embarrass Hogwarts.

And Ron chose that moment to snap out of his daze. He then fixated on Harry.

"You are the Boy-Who-Lived!" he exclaimed. Hermione palmed her face again.

"But I'm still alive!" Harry replied.

Ron looked at him in confusion. "No, you are the Boy-Who-Lived."

"And I told you that I am still alive!"

"Alright! Before you start… whatever you want to start, how about he explains what he means by that?" Sapphire cut in. She knew full well that Harry liked getting under people's skins. The more emotional they got — be it angry, jealous, happy, loving, sad or anything else — the more easier it became for him to read their underlying emotions as well. His usual tactic was to say anything and everything idiotic till the other person became frustrated and angry.

Hermione cut in, as they began to walk outside. "When you were a year old, you stopping the evil wizard You-Know-Who. He invaded your house, and murdered your parents. He tried to use the killing curse on you but it rebounded on him instead. That's why you're the Boy-Who-Lived."

"First off. I don't know who. Secondly, I keep telling you that I am still alive. Therefore I cannot be the Boy-Who-Lived. Why do I get the title that is in the past tense but the evil dead guy is You-Know-Who and not You-Knew-Who?"

Hermione's palm met her face yet again. Mcgonagall was right. The Boy-Who-Lived was a bit of an idiot.

"Oh you are absolutely right! Why didn't we think of that!"

And then there was the other idiot. Why was Ron Weasley a prefect again?

"Besides, you seriously expect me to believe that?"

The seriousness of his voice made both Hermione and Ron turn to him.

"Wha—" She began, but he interrupted her.

"You expect me to believe that I survived a curse that kills its target regardless of who they are, on a cosmic fluke rather than whatever else my parents, who I assume were at least more knowledgeable than me in magic, did to ensure my survival?" Harry questioned. He left out the part that the killing curse was designed to kill humans and most animals. It was ineffective against Devils, Angels, Fallen Angels, Dragons, and some youkai.

"Umm, uhh, you might want to talk to Professor Dumbledore about that," Hermione stated slowly. He must have been traumatised by that event or something. She made it a point to keep it in mind to not bring up his title in front of him.

Hermione completely missed the fact that he was making fun of his own title.

The entire trip around the school was quite informative. Harry and his girlfriends, along with Lavinia, had learned quite a many things. Their entire society was stuck in the late nineteenth century, and had no idea of mordern technology. It was extremely interesting to them, seeing everyone use parchments and quills rather than papers and pens, the reliance on wands rather their own magical prowess, and the like.

Despite all this, their manner of speech wasn't that of the nineteenth century, which was also very interesting. It was a bit of a cultural shock, followed by a realization that Mephisto was probably wrong.

Well, until they had noticed that Hermione was being glared at by some people, though she didn't pay it any attention. She had then explained that she was looked down upon because of her blood-status, and the fact that she was made prefect over a Pureblood witch had made a lot of people angry.

Apparently the whole society was classist. It was then Harry and Sapphire both realized why Mephisto hated their society. Given that he had grown up as an Extra Devil, in the incredibly classist Devil Society, and was looked down upon his entire life by his fellow Devils, Mephisto could not stand anyone who did the same.

It had become even more apparent when a blonde haired pale skinned boy, followed by two bigger boys, both of whom looked quite similar with their pudgy faces, dark hair and a dull look in their eyes approached them. The two of them were drawn to Sapphire, but they didn't move.

Sapphire groaned inwardly as she tried to reign her allure in even further. There was limit to how much she could.

"You must be Harry Potter," the blonde, who's default expression seemed to be a sneer, stated in a matter-of-fact way. Either he wasn't affected by the allure or he did not swing that way. Whatever it was, Sapphire was glad that he wasn't staring at her like she was a piece of meat.

"Yeah, that's me," Harry said.

The thin boy stuck out his hand. "I'm Malfoy, Draco Malfoy." He then looked at Hermione and Ron. Harry didn't need his empathy to know that Draco was looking down at the two, like they were beneath him. The prefects were also very much openly hostile towards him. "You'll soon find out some wizarding families are much better than others, Potter. You don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you with that."

Harry looked at him, confused. "You're going to help me make friends with the wrong sort of people?"

"That is not what I meant, Potter! You should not be hanging around with the likes of Weasleys and… muggleborn," Draco said, making it quite clear that he was about to call Hermione something else. Probably something derogatory.

Ron was about to say something, but Ingvild stopped him. "Don't," she whispered to him. Ron frowned, but resorted to glaring.

"Why?" Harry asked. "Oh right. It's because they don't seem to be the wrong sort, and you want me to make friends with the wrong sort!"

Draco twitched. "You will pay for spurning me, Potter. You don't know us Malfoys. We can be quite vengeful."

With that, he turned around and left with his buddies.

"Huh. Didn't even introduce his friends," Harry muttered.

Hermione fixed him with a concerned look. The four of them were quite amazed by wands and the fact that everyone used them. Which just proved what McGonagall had told her. They were probably well versed in magical theory, but they couldn't perform any spells. Hermione was even sceptical of the theory part.

And now Harry had antagonized Malfoy.

"Well, you're not missing much, mate," Ron replied. He was a tad bit disappointed. He thought that for once, Malfoy would not be able to get in a last word, and Harry would totally destroy him. "Crabbe and Goyle don't really talk to anyone but Malfoy."

"You should watch after yourself," Hermione said softly. "Malfoy is a known bully. He will, without a doubt, come after you."

"Just for that?" Lavinia asked. "His ego must be very fragile."

"Anyways, thanks for the warning, but we'll be fine," Sapphire said. Draco didn't feel all that much powerful to her, but then again, he could be hiding his strength. This was a magical school, after all. No doubt most of them were doing the same.

She could still sense some oddballs here and there of above average power for their age, all around the age of sixteen/seventeen. Hopefully they would be a good challenge should they fight.

That would come later, though. They still had a school to explore.

Albus Dumbledore sighed tiredly as he sat down. Finally, his day had come to its end, he just needed to go eat dinner before a good night's sleep.

Unfortunately or not, the wards informed him that Harry Potter was outside his office. He allowed him inside.

"You wanted to see me, Harry?"

"Yes, uhh, Mr? Professor? I don't know what to call you..." Harry began.

"Just Professor or Headmaster Dumbledore will do fine. Most people address me as such even those who have long since graduated." Dumbledore replied.

"Okay. Headmaster Dumbledore. Mind explaining the whole Boy-Who-Lived thing?" Harry asked.

Dumbledore looked at him in surprise. "Did Mephisto never tell you?"

"Tell me what?" Harry asked. "I got the gist of it from Hermione, but she told me that you would know more."

Dumbledore heaved a sigh. "I see. Well, what do you want to know?"

"Who is You-know-who? And why is everyone afraid of him so much that they can't even say his name out loud?"

"His title is Lord Voldemort, and he…" Dumbledore noticed that Harry was muffling his laughter. "I'm sorry, is something funny?"

"Did you say Voldemort?" Harry asked, as he stifled his laugh.

"Uhh, yes. Lord Volde—"

"Haha, no, sorry, I can't imagine anyone taking me seriously if I called myself Lord *snnrk* Voldemort!"

Honestly, Dumbledore had a similar reaction when he had first heard what Tom Riddle was calling himself. He had hid it a lot better though.

"Yes, well, he successfully terrorized the nation with that title. His real name was Tom Riddle." Dumbledore had only told Harry his name because he was afraid that if Harry asked him such and Dumbledore refused or denied knowing, Harry might just peek inside his mind.

Who knows how many mind tricks and obscure magics Mephisto had taught him. Dumbledore didn't want to take that risk.

(Un)fortunately it made Harry even more amused. "A crime lord with the name of Tom Riddle calls himself Lord Voldemort?! A missed opportunity if you ask me. Think of the real terror he would have induced if he called himself Don Riddle!"

"Harry, this is no joking matter. Voldemort is responsible for many, many crimes that—"

"Would have even more of an impact if they were committed by Don Riddle. Because Don Riddle doesn't make threats. Don Riddle makes a deal you can't refuse." Harry grinned.

"Harry, that is literally the same thing." Dumbledore said. "And it is highly non-compassionate of you to make light of it."

Harry's smile didn't even waver in the slightest. "You say one thing, but your emotions say something else."

Dumbledore was taken aback. "You're an empath."

"Yup. You, yourself don't care about Riddle or his crimes, or even his victims. No... Its not that you don't care. More accurately you have given up." Harry said.

Dumbledore stared at Harry. Those eyes were unnervingly green. He wasn't surprised that Harry's empathic abilities had gotten past his occulumency. Occulumency's greatest drawback was that it was a reactionary defense. It needed to be activated when the mind was attacked. However this meant that the victim must identify that the mind was being attacked, and react accordingly. A highly skilled legillemens could read whatever he wanted before his victim could react to it.

But, an empath's abilities were a bit different. Rather reading thoughts or memories, they read emotions. As such, most of the time, occulumency failed to even stop an empath, because it didn't perceive an empathic reading as an attack unless the occulumens specifically trained himself to.

"Well," Harry said. "We're getting side-tracked. Perhaps you could tell me why he wanted my family dead."

Dumbledore sighed again as he felt the tension dissipate. "There was a prophecy that spoke about how you would kill him. Well, not you. Whoever was born to the ones who defied him thrice as the seventh month dies. You, and another boy by the name of Neville Longbottom were the two candidates. Voldemort personally chose to kill you and your parents."

"That… prophecy was fake, right?" Harry asked slowly.

"Without a doubt," Dumbledore said, knowing full well that a lie would be caught.

"Good," Harry muttered. He didn't want to be the one who told Mephisto that he missed a potential clairvoyant. Mephisto had told him that only three humans had the power to look into future: King Solomon, King Gilgamesh, and the head writer of Simpsons. "So… this guy kills my mother and father over some fake prophecy, and then tried to kill me using the killing curse, but I ended up rebounding it?"

"In all likelihood, your mother must have done some obscure ritual to ensure your safety. She was looking into ancient magics and the like before your parents went into hiding." Dumbledore said. "But despite me claiming otherwise, you were declared the 'hero' because no one wanted to admit that a muggleborn witch was the one who outsmarted their dark lord."

"Ah, classic classism." Harry said. He then decided to change the subject. Dumbledore was becoming more and more uncomfortable, but not in the hostile manner. Almost as if the burden of his old age was finally catching up with him. Besides, he had taken up enough time. "I assume that you would not know if they left me anything?"

"Harry, they were barely twenty three when they had you, and we were in a war. They probably didn't have the time to write a will. In any case, you should visit Gringotts bank just to see if they did." Dumbledore said.

"Where is this bank?"

Dumbledore looked at him. "Come here tomorrow morning. I will let you use the Floo to go there directly."

"Okay. Well. Thanks for the info," Harry said. "But I've taken up a lot of your time, so… dinner?"

"Dinner would be lovely, yes."

Gringotts Bank. Every wizard and witch had an account here. From the highest of the high to the lowest low, every family dealt with the bank. However, only certain families had enough gold to warrant their own account managers. They were, as most of the bank employees, goblins. They dealt with their family account directly, making investments and giving financial advice to the family they were hired to represent.

The Potters were once such family.

So, of course, when Harry and Sapphire entered the bank from the Floo, and the bank confirmed their, or at the very least, Harry's identity (they had wards to detect lies) they were immediately directed to the Potter Account Manager's office.

"Ahh, Mr. Harry Potter," said the goblin, who had introduced himself as Axeclaw. "I've been waiting for you."

"That sounds ominous," Harry muttered under his breath. "Well. I'm just here to find out if my parents left behind any thing for me."

"What a coincidence," the goblin said. "I was going to tell you the same. You see, Mr. Potter, this is the current state of your accounts."

Axeclaw handed him a parchment. "I have accounts?" Harry asked as he looked at the parchment. His and Sapphire's jaws fell to the floor when they saw the amount on it. "I'm that rich?!"

"Well, Mr. Potter, I just have to point out one teeny-tiny thing," the goblin said gleefully. "When your ancestors made this account, they signed a contract."

"That is standard banking procedure," Sapphire said.

"And had they read the contract, they would not have signed it."

There was loud silence.

"I immediately don't like that tone," Harry said to Sapphire. She nodded.

"After all, what goblin could ever hope to outsmart a pureblood wizard?" The goblin barked out a laugh. "You see, Harry Potter, you were hit by the Killing Curse. By the terms of the contract," Axeclaw handed Harry and Sapphire the signed contract.

"Wait. This... You clever bastards!" Harry yelled.

"So you see, Mr. Potter! By the terms of the contract, you are classified as deceased! And as such, you no longer have any accounts that are yours to own as they belong to us now! If you want to overturn that, then you need to pay the bank a fee of five thousand galleons! Which you no longer have!" Axeclaw said as if the best day of his life had just arrived.

If any wizard, who was the sole owner of any account, without any next of kin or any other person who could inherit them, was hit by any spell or curse that ensures death, then the Bank will consider them to be deceased. His accounts will then be seized by Gringotts Bank. Gringotts Bank will not verify whether the account holder is actually dead or not.

Harry could see why his ancestors wouldn't have signed it had they actually read it.

"Great. I'm assuming that this fee is prepaid and I cannot promise it out of the— never mind, that is exactly what is written on the next page." Harry said.

"I know we decided otherwise, but we might need to bring Mephisto here with us."

Harry really wished Sapphire hadn't said that. Not because he was against it, but because all of a sudden the goblins, two of whom were standing guard all this time, were pointing their weapons at them.

"H-H-How do you know that… devil?!" Axeclaw demanded, fear and anger in his voice. "No, I don't care. Get out of my office! And leave this bank! Never come here again you filthy humans!"

Axeclaw practically shoved them out of his office by himself. He was aided by the guards.

On the bright side, the goblins let them use the floo to leave.

Axeclaw then went to see the Goblin Chief, Ragnok. He told his chief about the Harry Potter being acquainted at the very least to Mephisto Pheles.

Ragnok would then place the entire goblin clans under emergency.

They might need to go to war once again.


	5. Chapter 5

Harry, along with Sapphire and Ingvild, sat on the chairs in their Hogwarts guest quarters, which were surprisingly soft. A translucent apparition of Mephisto stood in front of them.

Lavinia was in one of the bedrooms, practicing her magic.

"To understand the goblins, you must first understand their history," Mephisto lectured. "You see, Gringotts was founded after they were soundly defeated by the humans. Humans, in their hubris, didn't believe that the goblins would ever recover or even have enough intelligence to screw them over. And to be honest, while they are quite the crafty bunch, they aren't that crafty. Instead, goblin shamans from various tribes came together and contacted my kind. Some Sitri brat if I recall correctly. That contract, the method by which that gold was taken from you, and of course, the way their bank operates, was all taught to them by this Sitri."

"But they stole the money because their bank thinks that he is dead." Sapphire said. "All because he was hit by the Killing Curse."

Harry didn't question how anyone would know that he was hit by the Killing Curse. It tended to leave its magical residue on the victim, which was very unique to it. That was how a silent heart attack was differentiated from a Killing Curse victim. The effects on the body were the same otherwise.

"I would not call it stealing, you see," Mephisto said. "Was it wrong? Probably. Unfair? Definitely. But illegal? Not in the slightest. Your ancestor, for whatever reason, signed the contract. Whether he didn't care what happened to all of his money, or he didn't understand the terms, or he was arrogant enough to decide that no such spell would be cast on any of his family members is irrelevant. Even if you decide to sue the bank, a halfway decent lawyer will throw your case out. The goblins will simply argue that they were executing the terms of the contract."

Mephisto noticed Sapphire's and Harry's reactions. "Oh please. Don't give me that look. As a Devil, I had to deal with my fair share of customers who felt they were cheated because of the wording and structure of the pact they signed. Most recently, Lavinia. Her parents may have signed the pact asking for us to find her, but we chose not to return her because that was not in the pact."

"But she wanted to—"

Mephisto cut Sapphire off. "You can justify it however you want. Fact is, we cheated the Reni's. They wanted to find her, and the 'return her safely to us' was always implied. Had I been a normal human, I would have been charged for kidnapping, and the two of you would have been accomplices. Well, technically,we are."

"Except she would have told the authorities that she ran away on her own free will," Sapphire argued.

"You think that would help? Even a bad lawyer would win that case for the Reni's. You forget, Lavinia is sixteen, a minor in her home country. Her testimony can be easily thrown out by her parents, who can easily spin the narrative to their favor. Even more so given that she only ran away from them because she didn't like them. She was never abused or neglected, at least in a way that can be proven medically. We certainly would not have a positive response from the public, and that would be squashed to oblivion because they can then claim we took advantage of her," Mephisto shot back. "But that is off topic. The Goblins confiscated your money. That's why you need me."

Harry sighed."So all that amount is gone?"

Mephisto smirked. "No. They did give you a way out, remember?"

"Where am I supposed to get five thousand galleons?" Harry asked.

"You are going to get a thousand galleons. Remember, a single galleon is a pure gold coin, weighing around five grams," Mephisto said. "Which is why I said that a thousand of them is almost five kilograms of gold. You can sell them to a black market gold vendor, instead of converting them directly to the mundane currency via their exchange system. If we go by the British Pound, you'll get somewhere around two hundred thousand. And then, if you convert this much amount into galleons by the goblins' exchange rate, you will receive somewhere around forty thousand galleons."

"You are saying that I would profit by four thousand percent? All because of their broken gold system?" Harry said.

Mephisto smirked again. "Exactly. They beat you at their game. Now you can beat them at the same game."

"Except they won't do any business with us, given they hate you and anyone connected to you," Sapphire cut in. "They were quite hostile."

"I wouldn't count on them attacking first or at all," Mephisto replied. "In all of history, with their past rebellions, they have always been reactive rather than proactive. Goading the humans to attack first, or at least making it look like that. Instead, they will be on the defensive. That way, no matter what they do, they can simply claim to be the defenders and play the victim. A very simple yet very effective strategy. And if my past experience with them is any indication, they most certainly care more about gold than they care about their own children."

Mephisto was quite certain that if the goblins were to go on the offensive, Harry, Sapphire and Ingvild, and to a lesser extent even Lavinia, could defeat them quite easily. Goblins weren't particularly powerful. Their strength was in numbers and not in quality of their fighters. It was why they had lost every single rebellion of theirs. But the problem wasn't the battle. The problem was the aftermath. Who knows how much would it cost — the lost lives, properties, and the like.

And the mental toll on his students should they all commit what could technically be classified as genocide.

That, and why go with physical violence when you can fuck them over financially and ruin their whole bank? Mephisto had already informed his contacts within the goblin tribes to get him a copy of that contract. The goblins were quick to use contracts as weapons? Well, two could play that game.

Harry was silent for a while. "Just what did you do to them?"

Mephisto smirked again. "How do you think I acquired my wealth? It wasn't honest work, you know. And stealing, cheating, and scamming from any non-Devil race is completely legal in our government. I particularly, scammed goblins quite often. Of course, the current Satans will not be happy if you get caught, but that's neither here nor there."

Mephisto did not mention that he had made off with over three tons of gold, jewellery, artefacts, heirlooms, weapons, and even a goblin made siege weapon.

Mephisto then turned to Harry again. "Besides, did you forget just what I am capable of? You concentrate on winning the thousand galleons. Then, we'll hit them hard where it hurts them the most."

Ingvild spoke up. "Why do you care this much?"

"Mostly a sick pleasure of scamming goblins. It's a favorite past time of mine." This statement was spoken without a shred of sarcasm. Then he turned once again to Harry. "Besides, why do you care about the money? I can understand Sapphire, she's always had a mind for financial things, and material possessions, but you haven't exactly been that interested in it. Is it your Dragon side that is getting possessive about the treasure?"

"Umm… who would not want that much amount of money?" Harry asked.

"Ahh. Touché." Mephisto muttered.

Besides, Harry would not exactly call it his treasure, probably ever. Dragons hoarded treasures, yes, but they did not inherit treasure. The gold in the Potter Vault was his only because he would inherit it. He had no connection to it otherwise. He didn't earn it. He did not even work hard to get it.

"At least they didn't tell you to take an inheritance test." Mephisto said.

"Why?" Harry enquired.

"Well its another scam where they link you to any random long dead family," Mephisto replied. "They take around 239 ml, yes exactly that amount, and then make the family names appear on a piece of parchment, written in your own blood as 'proof'. It's quite clever really."

"Well. In any case, I shall be going now. The succubus twins I hired would be arriving any second, and Staci and Candi are both expensive, and they charge extra for each second wasted. Literally per second," Mephisto said as he cut the connection.

"So… that happened." Sapphire muttered. "What do you plan on doing?"

Harry sighed. "Do as he says, I guess. Besides, I do want to see the look on Axeclaw's face when he realizes that he could have avoided this whole thing had he not taken my money. Well, technically my family's money given that I didn't earn a single cent of it."

Besides, sucks to be the goblins given that Mephisto loved to scam them.

BOOM! CRASH! SPLAT!

"Harry? Sapphire? I think I destroyed the bed and the wall!"

"I'll go see what she did," Sapphire said as she went to fix whatever Lavinia did.

Ingvild pouted. "Why didn't she call for me?"

Daphne Greengrass was not a morning person. Regardless she got out of her bed out of pure spite. Another dull day awaited her. Breakfast, classes, lunch, post lunch classes, evening of studying, rejecting boys and the occasional girl, dinner, more studying and then sleep.

Funnily enough, she didn't even study as much as Granger.

Then again, no one studied as much as Granger.

Daphne dragged herself to breakfast in the Great Hall, noting that students were slowly coming in, some half-asleep, some fully asleep and some wide awake. The Slytherin table wasn't full yet either. She could spot her usual group of friends. Well, friends was a bit of a stretch. More like people she tolerated. There was Tracey Davis, and Theodore Nott, and… no, that's pretty much it.

Their group always sat a bit on the side from the others. Most people assumed that the Slytherins were united outside the Slytherin Common Room, but that was not true. Slytherins had factions. Well, two factions. You could be like Daphne, her sister, Tracey, and Theo, who had no connection with the known or marked Death Eaters (mostly because their parents were never marked or never caught) or be part of Draco's clique.

It especially helped when no one knew that your father supported the Dark Lord (he did so only in secret), doing the bare minimum so that he would not turn his attention on the Greengrasses. Indeed, Cyrus Greengrass wasn't even a marked Death Eater, something that he was proud of.

Daphne was quite indifferent about it.

Theirs wasn't a particularly old family, they didn't exactly predate the Malfoys. Given that she disappointed her father as soon as she was born a girl, she was mostly raised by her mother, who was born to the Most Ancient and Most Noble House of Selwyn. She was taught the importance of lineage, and how she was automatically superior to most of her fellow students. And how she should not make the same mistake her mother did by marrying someone who was of lesser status.

Daphne particularly didn't question it and whole heartedly agreed. She had the blood of the Greengrass and Selwyn in her veins. Obviously she was superior to everyone.

"Looks like she's still lost in thought," Tracey said as Daphne sat down beside her.

"She's always lost in thought," Theodore Nott Jr. quipped. "Especially in the morning. Perhaps if we give her some Earl Grey?"

Daphne said nothing as she reached out for a couple of pieces of bacon. One would be very surprised to see that she, a known Ice Queen, hang out with the adventurous Tracey and the flirtatious Theodore. She herself didn't know why she hung out with them.

"So did you hear that the Boy-Who-Lived has finally come to Hogwarts? I heard that he is quite the looker," Tracey said.

Daphne continued to eat her breakfast. She could use some tea right now, but it was no where to be found.

"Oh yeah? From who?" Theo questioned.

"Granger. She was blushing quite a lot when asked about him."

Daphne tightened her grip on the fork. It went unnoticed, but then again, so was her ever lasting ire about Granger.

Theo laughed. "Please. Granger. Like she has a good eye. She doesn't even find me attractive! Can you believe that?"

Daphne would agree. She would certainly call Theodore Nott an attractive man. Not that she had any feelings for him, but that didn't mean that she didn't appreciate the other sex.

Tracey humm'd. "You sound jealous. Afraid that you will have competition?"

"Not at all! He may be famous, but I doubt that he is that good."

Daphne wondered if Tracey would try to 'be friendly' with Harry Potter. But where was the tea?

"Well let's see," Tracey said, as suddenly the murmurs that were always present, as a part and parcel of a crowded hall, went silent.

They all turned around, to see the four of the visiting students. One in particular caught their attention.

Harry Potter had come to breakfast.

"Holy shit they're hot!" Theo whisper-yelled to Tracey. "Especially that black haired one. Do you think Potter's—"

"Hush, Theo," Daphne cut in for the first time, as Harry and his friends(?) went and sat down on the Gryffindor table. How typical.

Daphne had observed him carefully. He had ignored all of the stares and he went to sit next to Granger. Stupid move. He was far above her. Daphne did notice that the girls around him also joined him, and she didn't know who they were.

But she didn't care. The Potters did have a history of being friendly with those beneath their status. Almost as if they considered Half-Bloods and Mudbloods their equals. To a girl who was raised in a strictly Pureblood house, this was incomprehensible.

Daphne particularly felt that Harry Potter should only involve himself with wizards and witches that were befitting of his status. Such as herself.

Daphne was the product of the Most Ancient and Most Noble House of Selwyn and the Ancient House of Greengrass. If someone like Harry Potter should be involving himself with, it would have to be a superior witch such as herself.

The fact that she was staring at Harry the whole time and could feel his dragonic aura affect her was missed completely by Daphne due to her internal monologue.

Harry grabbed some bread as he idly listened to the Irish boy, who had introduced himself as Seamus, go on a rant about how many girls he had supposedly slept with. He didn't need his empathy to know that the boy was lying, but Sapphire and Ingvild were quite amused. Sapphire had decided to do what she should have done yesterday and used a rune to mask her allure.

Now most of the people who were ogling her were doing so because of her own beauty and not the allure. At least some were even stealing glances at Ingvild and Lavinia, but she was taking it in stride. Lavinia was more than a bit nervous. Sapphire inwardly sighed. She was a very smart girl, and was progressing wonderfully, but she constantly compared herself with Sapphire and Harry.

"You know there's a girl staring at you quite intensely," Sapphire commented as she buttered her toast. "All the way from that table."

"Oi, that's Greengrass, mate," Ron said as he munched on some boiled eggs. Had Harry not grown up around Tannin, he would have probably be disgusted at Ron's eating habits. Lavinia certainly was. "She may be a looker, but she's a total bitch. And a Slytherin."

"You are only saying that because she told you off multiple times," Hermione cut in. "She does come across as… well, she's not a people person."

"Nah, I'm with Ron on this one," a dark skinned boy, Dean Thomas, interjected. "If she's staring at you, it can't be anything good."

"Noted," Harry said. He was taking their interpretations of this Greengrass at face value. He hadn't met her to decide if he agreed or not. He decided to change the subject. "So, what classes do you guys have?"

"I got Divination," Ron said.

"Same," Dean replied. "Wonder who Trelawney will say they will die because she saw it in the future?"

Sapphire looked up. "Your Divinations teacher… sees the future?"

Dean nodded, confused. "That's what's it for, innit? Telling the future?"

She shook her head. "No. That's a very common misconception. The future is ever changing. Every slightest action or inaction can change the future. Divining isn't used to see the future. It is used to see the present or past."

"Why would we want to see the present or past?" Ron asked. "And she's a seer, or she claims."

Harry stayed silent, as he let Sapphire explain. Lavinia was paying attention as well. Ingvild was talking to some other girls.

"Once again, a common misconception. A seer that can see the future, or more accurately, a future event, is called a clairvoyant," Sapphire said. "And even then, a clairvoyant will only see a most probable future event, that may or may not come to pass. Other seers can see whatever is happening in the present or past."

"And you want to see the present because everything is happening in the present. Want to find out what your parents are doing at this very moment? Ask a seer," Sapphire added. "As for the past, think of any crime. A good seer will just see the crime as it takes place in the past, identifying the victim and the culprit."

"So why are we learning about reading the future?" Hermione asked. She had dropped out of Divinations, true, but that was what literally written on the Divinations textbooks. Obviously she didn't believe Sapphire.

"Only your government or your teachers can answer that," Sapphire replied. She had left out the other, much more rare form of a seer, that could see across dimensions or even 'that which is not to be seen'. Mephisto doubted that any such seer existed in the present times, so she didn't bring it up. She had also left out that a seer's power was an inborn trait, often as a result of hybrid humans (demigods, half-youkai, half-devils, etc). It could not be taught.

Ingvild and Lavinia were in another conversation, but it had nothing to do with academics.

"I didn't think that purple was a natural hair color! Is it common in Australia?" asked Lavender Brown, who, like Lavinia, also had blonde hair and blue eyes. She just wasn't as… fit. She had assumed that Ingvild was from Australia because she had told Lavender that her mother was from 'Down Under.'

Lavender had then immediately jumped to Australia, and Ingvild had played along.

"Oh, it is a side-effect of awakening my magic a rather late," Ingvild lied smoothly. Purple, pink, green, silver, and other hair colors weren't unnatural in Devils, and she took after her mother in that regard. "It used to be strawberry blonde."

"Really!" Lavender exclaimed, having bought the lie. "I think you would look quite cute in your original hair color!"

"Are you a metamorphomagus?" another girl, who had introduced herself as Parvati, cut in. She was a petite dark skinned, dark haired girl, who was apparently best friends with Lavender.

Ingvild shook her head. "No, this hair color change happened once and stayed that way. I like it this way. It's more unique."

Parvati and Lavender nodded. "Hard to argue with that."

Idle chatter continued till the end of the breakfast, and slowly, everyone filed out, heading for their classes.

"Hey, Ingvild, Lavinia," Harry called out. "We're both going to that forest at the edge of the school. Apparently it's Forbidden, which makes it worth investigating."

Ingvild shook her head. "You guys go on if you want. I'll explore this castle a bit more."

Lavinia looked at Ingvild, and then at Harry and Sapphire. "Sorry Ingvild, I'll go with Harry and Sapphire."

"Sure, no problem!" Ingvild said with a smile. She waved the three goobdye as they left.

Moving staircases.

Something that confused the ever living soul out of Ingvild. When the two prefects had shown them around, Ingvild hadn't bothered asking. The redheaded one seemed a bit dull, agreeing with whatever Harry said or commented, no matter how stupid it was, and the bushy haired girl was a bit too much of a by-the-numbers sort of a girl.

Ingvild didn't even want to know what the thought process was that went into building moving staircases. She wondered if 'I'm sorry for being late, the stairs moved to floor six instead of floor three' was a plausible excuse to be late.

Probably not.

Ingvild sighed in exasperation as she was taken to the wrong floor, probably the seventh one, but she couldn't count given just how many times the stairs kept moving her around and then finally coming to a stop.

It must be especially hard for anyone who wanted to go number two but had to hold it in until the stairs lead them to the floor with the toilets. Would especially suck if you had a bad case of diarrhoea. Or if they broke their bones but had to wait in agony till they moved to the floor with the medical unit.

Seriously. These stairs should be fixed.

But this wasn't her own house, so she couldn't exactly do it herself. She might get in trouble with legal authorities.

Ingvild grumbled about the stairs as she continued to walk forwards. The castle itself was confusing. Why not have a clear map of the entire castle instead of this maze of a school? She was quite certain that she could hide a body in here. It would be easy too, given that she had run into some places that looked like no one had visited for a few years at least.

This whole place by itself was a hazard.

Case in point was the bullying that she just happened to walk in on.

A short, well shorter than her at least, blonde girl, who was barefoot, was surrounded by three other girls. She wasn't even crying, but rather looking at her bullies with a confused look. Her pale feet were dirty, as if she had been walking barefoot all the time.

"Get this through your thick skull, Looney! There are no nagrels! And they are certainly not around my head!" One of them said.

"You mean nargles." said 'Looney' replied calmly. As if she didn't even care that they were teasing and bullying her.

"Whatever! How did someone like you end up in Ravenclaw?" said another one of the bullies.

"In my first year, on my first day, I put on the Sorting Hat and it sorted me in Ravenclaw," the girl replied. The bullies didn't look very happy at that statement. Especially given that she spoke to them as if she was genuinely explaining it to them.

Ingvild made no move to help. It wasn't her place to do so. If this Looney could not stand up to herself then neither would Ingvild. Although so far she was doing a good job. Be it intentionally or not.

"Now if you excuse me, I have to go find my socks that were taken by wrackspurts."

"There! Is! No! Su—"

"Ugh. Please. Let her go, Pauline. She's not worth it," said another bully. They side-steppped, allowing her to leave. The bullies went the other way. They had noticed Ingvild, and it seemed like they didn't want to let her be involved. Not that Ingvild was going to get involved, but they didn't need to know that.

"Hey! I'm Luna," the girl introduced herself as she approached Ingvild. "Luna Lovegood. You must be one of the new students."

"Well technically I'm not a student,"Ingvild replied. "And I'm Ingvild Ortlinde."

Luna nodded. "Wanna help me look for my socks?"

"Are they important to you?" Ingvild asked. She didn't know why this girl wasn't using the most common summoning charm. Maybe the socks were living creatures. It wasn't the most outlandish thing Ingvild had seen. But Ingvild supposed that the most logical explanation must be that the socks must be out of range for her summoning. In any case, she decided to ask this to her.

"You can't use Accio on a pair of socks, silly," Luna said. "You'll lose the softness and the comfort!"

"Huh," Ingvild replied. "I didn't know that. Those socks must be made out of some really magically susceptible cloth."

Luna nodded. "You understand my woes then. Fae wool gets ruined by any spell that is used directly on them."

The fact that Luna spoke this with a 100% confidence made Ingvild believe her completely. But hey, just because you didn't know that the Fae made wool didn't necessarily mean that they didn't make any wool, right? Or that the very secretive Fae society, that was hidden from every other Faction, and believed to be mythical by most, if not all, was selling socks to this girl, or her family.

"Eh, sure," Ingvild said after a moment's silence. "I'll help you look for your socks. What color were they?"

"One is blue with red stripes and the other is red with blue stripes," Luna replied.

Ingvild smiled. She decided to play along because it amused her.

"Of course," Ingvild said. "Where did you last see them?"

Luna looked at Ingvild, a confused look on her face. "On my feet, silly."

Ingvild palmed her face. "Obviously. Silly me. When did you notice they were missing?"

"Ummm…" Luna pondered to think. "When I was talking to those girls. They were very interested in my shoes." Then it her eyes widened in an Eureka moment. "Oh right! I took them off when they wanted to see my shoes really, really badly! They were even yelling at me!"

"See! That wasn't so hard now, was it?" Ingvild said. "Let's go see if they have them and if they want to give them back!"

"Yeah!" Luna cheered and they went after the trio of girls.


	6. Chapter 6

Harry, Sapphire, and Lavinia walked into the forest. The students had called this the Forbidden Forest and Harry and Sapphire had yet to see why.

Lavinia could definitely see why because she was sure that she had seen a cobra. There were no cobras in Scotland. Where did this cobra come from? She had also seen a couple of centaurs in the distance. They looked dangerous, with their armor and weapons.

Lavinia looked at Harry and Sapphire. They weren't the least bit bothered about any of the unusual animals and creatures present here. It gave her a bit of comfort, knowing that if they were not bothered, she will be perfectly fine.

Then she spotted something that awoke her inner child.

"Is that a unicorn?!"

Harry looked at her. Then he looked towards the white horse that had a single horn on its head. "Hmm? Yeah. Those are rare, often hunted for that horn. It's considered bad luck to kill one, and you get cursed if you drink their blood. It has incredible healing properties, you see. Of course, all of this can be worked around if you use the blood to heal yourself without drinking it or if you take the horn without killing it."

Lavinia made a sour look. She couldn't imagine harming such a majestic creature. But she could see Harry's point. Magic was highly specific. In general, a spell had to be designed with certain parameters.

The disillusionment charm, for instance, that was designed to make certain things invisible, will not be effective against modern technology (such as cameras) because the inventor of that spell had no idea that such technology could ever exist and therefore the spell did not account for non-biological 'eyes'. The spell had to be tweaked in order to make it effective against cameras.

The whole gimmick with the unicorn was no doubt similar.

"Though it makes you wonder what's it doing here. Unicorns are almost endemic to the Mediterranean areas with a few breeds that can be found in Australia. Perhaps it was brought here illegally?" Sapphire speculated as they continued to walk further into the forest.

"Sapphire! Just because you don't know better doesn't mean it's illegal! That could have been purchased by jumping through all the international legal loopholes to get it all the way here," Harry chided.

"It's illegal to purchase an unicorn?" Lavinia asked.

"Like Harry said, there are loopholes," Sapphire replied. "You see, that horn won't start to appear at least till the unicorn is nine months old. You can purchase it before then, claim that you thought you had purchased a regular horse, and you didn't know better. Then, because they can be fiercely loyal to their caretakers, claim that it would be detrimental to the unicorn to be separated from you as doing so can make it depressed. Like, it will try to kill itself depressed. Congratulations. You have successfully purchased your own unicorn."

"It cannot be that easy, right?" Lavinia asked.

Harry shook his head. "Nope. Like most things in life, you just need a very good lawyer. Or friends in high places. Or—"

SQUELCH!

"Fuck! I stepped on a flobberworm!" Harry yelled as he immediately used a spell to clean his shoes and pants. Its mucus could be a bitch to get rid of if you don't clean it up in time.

"Wait. Where are we going?" Sapphire asked. This part of the forest seemed to be covered by spider webs, indicating the presence of a large colony.

"Smells like Acromantula web," Harry said. "The only magical spider that forms colonies. Though the species are exclusively found in Australia which makes me wonder why they are all the way here. And without their natural predator, they tend to be a huge pest."

Lavinia stopped. "Magical… spider… colony?" She said fearfully.

"Don't worry!" Harry said reassuringly. "They may be sentient, but their venom is far weaker than a Black Widow's. It's the web that you should avoid. That thing is more sticky than super glue and getting caught up in it is what gets you killed."

Lavinia gulped and Sapphire glared at Harry. "Are you trying to scare her to death?"

Before Harry could reply, they were interrupted by a the sound of multiple things skittering about, as a large shadow descended on them. The large shadow split into multiple shadows, indicating that shadow was actually multiple objects.

"Oh no, we're surrounded," Harry said dryly as they looked around to see multiple acromantulas, stretching out as far as they could see.

Lavinia screamed in terror as she latched on to Harry. Sapphire was looking around, thinking of the best way to deal with this.

"It's not everyday that food just comes walking in," said a deep voice as a very large spider, at least as big as a horse, came crawling towards them. "But now me and my children shall eat wonderfully!"

"Lavinia." Harry said, his tone extremely serious.

"Buh?" Lavinia looked at him, noticing his intense gaze. Despite her fear, she blushed a bit.

"You are best suited for this. If Sapphire or I decided to burn these bastards alive, then we would end up destroying a considerable chunk of the forest. You, however, can target what you freeze," Harry explained. "So do it. I know you can."

"I haven't tried with these many!" Lavinia yelped.

"You can!" Sapphire encouraged.

Lavinia nodded as the spiders got nearer to them. Her Sacred Gear manifested in the air, the creepy looking doll facing the large, talking acromantula.

"More food!" the spider said gleefully.

"Concentrate," Harry cut in. "Visualize what you want to freeze. Then freeze it using your Stando Powah!"

Sapphire shot Harry an annoyed look. "Really? Must you do that now?"

Lavinia tried to ignore them. The Absolute Demise had the ability to freeze its targets to zero kelvin. But the more interesting thing was that it had the ability to affect the targets and only the targets. Even if you came into contact with the frozen target, you would not feel cold as such. A similar principle would be used here. She would be freezing each and every single spider, and leave all the trees, the air, and the ground they were on, completely unaffected by the cold.

She had done this before, based on Azazel's notes. Just not on such a large scale.

The first wave of her ice was successful in freezing the spiders closest to them, including the very large talking one. The remaining ones immediately closed in even faster, and it was unclear to the two humans and Veela if it was out of a desire for revenge or just a desire for feeding.

Harry decided not to wait around. His left arm was immediately encased in a red gauntlet that had green gems. He placed the Boosted Gear on Lavinia's back.

"At my signal." Harry said.

Lavinia nodded. "I'm ready."

BOOST! TRANSFER!

Lavinia felt a surge of power rise within her, her magic strengthening in both quality and quantity. The doll did its trick once more, this time managing to freeze every single acromantula.

Lavinia panted. "Did I—"

Harry smiled at her as she fell into his arms. "Yeah. You got them. Let's head back, shall we?"

Sapphire looked at them with a smile. Lavinia was progressing quickly. Harry's Boost no doubt helped considerably, but the ability was her own. If only she would break out of the whole comparing herself to others thing.

"…and that is when we decided to return," Sapphire told Ingvild as they relaxed in their quarters. Lavinia was asleep, as she was tired from the whole thing. Harry was in one of the bedrooms, and they could occasionally hear him say something like 'Fuck you Kirei and your fucking mapo tofu!' along with 'Stop spooking me Fionn!'

"And who is this girl again?"

Sapphire was referring to the petite blond girl who was sitting with Ingvild. She had a dreamy look on her face, and she was reading a magazine while holding it upside down.

"This is Luna Lovegood," Ingvild replied. "I helped her get her socks back."

"Okay… but I think that there's a story here?" Sapphire asked.

"She was being bullied. I asked the bullies to return her socks." Ingvild replied.

"Let me guess. Mental suggestion?"

"Nope." Ingvild said.

Sapphire narrowed her eyes. "Your hypnotic abilities."

Ingvild shook her head. "That's literally the same thing."

"We asked nicely," Luna piped up. "And they gave my socks back!"

Sapphire turned to her. "Okay, but how?!"

Ingvild smiled in amusement. "We just told you, Sapphy. We asked nicely."

Sapphire felt as if she wanted to tear her hair out. "This is going nowhere… what words did you use?"

Ingvild looked at Sapphire.

"Please… just take them! Don't take my memories of the things I studied for the NEWTs away! Please!" Pauline was all but crying, grovelling at Ingvild's feet. In Ingvild's defence, she did ask nicely the first three times.

"I just said, please give us back Luna's socks. And they did," Ingvild replied.

"There was the whole threat of taking their memories away," Luna cut in.

"Thank you Luna!" Sapphire cried out. "It's impossible getting out anything from this one, it seems."

Ingvild pouted. "Take away my fun, why don't you."

Harry decided to come back out at that moment. He had a scowl on his face. He sat down next to Sapphire.

"Aww, did you not get the JPEG you wanted?" She mocked.

"Fuck you," Harry snapped. He then started muttering about 'rate up being a lie' and 'why didn't Skadi respond'.

"Does that mean that I can enter your room?" Sapphire asked.

"No!" Harry replied. Luckily they had respected his wishes to be left alone at night for now.

Sapphire pouted. Ingvild perked up. "Ooh! Ooh!"

"Not a single chance."

And she was shot down.

Luna looked at Harry. "Can I?"

Harry looked at Luna. "Do… do I know you?"

"I'm Luna. Ingvild's my friend!"

"And you want to come in room… why?" Harry asked..

Luna tilted her head in confusion. "These two wanted to come in, apparently at night, so I figured it must be a fun activity at night. But then you said no to them, and I want to see what is this fun thing, so I asked."

Harry stopped. "Uhh Luna, why do you think they want to enter my bedroom at night?"

Luna still looked confused. "For some fun?"

Sapphire giggled. "Oh, there's a lot of… fun… games. Some even require a hands-on approach. You could say the games can be very exhausting and quite—"

"Okay, stop," Harry cut her off. "Luna… pay her no attention. What do you think happens when a boy and a girl enter the same room at night?"

"I know this one!" Luna piped up. "My mum and dad did it every single night!"

"What?" Harry asked, bewildered. Even Sapphire and Ingvild were shocked at that

"They would go to the bedroom at night and sleep until dawn!"

They all let a sigh of relief. After hearing that, there were different things running in the heads of the three of them.

'She's too precious and innocent! Must not let Sapphire corrupt her!'

'She's too precious and innocent! Must corrupt her!'

'I wonder if I should help Harry in protecting her or help Sapphire in corrupting her.…there's no correct answer is there?'

"What? Why are you all staring at me like that?" Luna asked.

"It's nothing," Harry told her. "Hey it's getting a bit late. Why don't I walk you to… wherever you stay?"

"You mean the Ravenclaw Tower?"

"Yeah, that."

"Okay! Let's go!" Luna said cheerfully.

Twenty points were deducted from Ravenclaw because Luna skipped her classes… despite the face that she did so unknowingly.

Harry was very excited to meet his fellow competitors.

Dumbledore had told him about the Wand Weighing Ceremony and where it would be held, so Harry had decided to go five minutes early. As it turned out, two others had a similar idea. The room they were in was quite spacious, with some chairs and a fireplace.

"Hey guy and gal! I'm Harry Potter!" Harry said as he introduced himself to the two of them.

"We know," said the guy, in a thick Bulgarian accent. He was a tall, burly man with short cropped hair and stern brown eyes. Anyone else would have been intimidated by his looks. "I am Viktor Krum, from Durmstrang."

The girl huffed haughtily. She was much easier on the eyes, having silver blonde hair and blue eyes. Her robes hid her figure. The slight tingling Harry felt clued him in on the fact that she was a Veela. "And I am Fleur Delacour. I didn't expect you English men to be such… brazen." She had a French accent.

Harry looked at her, confused. "What do you mean by that?"

"Do not call me a 'gal'," Fleur said simply.

Harry smiled and nodded. "I didn't mean anything by it, but ok!"

The fourth champion entered the room. He was also a tall boy, but unlike Viktor Krum, he was much more lean. He had dark hair and kind grey eyes.

"Am I late?" He asked.

"Nah, we're here early," Harry replied. "I'm—"

"Harry Potter, I know. I'm Cedric, Cedric Diggory," the boy introduced himself.

"Oh look, everyone has gathered already!" A jovial voice came through from behind Cedric, and the portly frame of Ludo Bagman wobbled in.

He was followed by the headmasters and the sole headmistress, along with a really old man, complete with gray hair and sunken eyes, along with wrinkly skin. Not even Dumbledore looked that old.

Harry looked at the other headmaster with a cautious look. The emotions coming off of him were quite vile. His cold eyes were unnerving, and his heavy beard, along with his tall and thin build, gave this man the look of a stereotypical cartoon villain. Kind of like Jafar.

The headmistress was a large woman, as in almost 8 feet tall large. She towered over everyone else, and Harry didn't bother ignoring her emotions. It was clear to him that she was part-giant, and in his experience, giants had only two emotions. Horny and hungry.

Mixing those with a human's, had of course, tempered her giant side considerably. Her mental defences were weak, and as such, Harry could easily determine that this woman was more human than giant.

"I see you all have gathered here already," Dumbledore began as he stepped up. He had been looking forward to this for quite some time. Perhaps Harry would show his wand-less magic, which could give some clue as to what he was capable of.

"To those of you who don't know, this is Garrick Ollivander, a renowned wand maker. He will be weighing your wands," Dumbledore informed the group.

Harry raised his hand.

"Mr. Potter, this isn't a classroom. There's no need to raise your hand," Dumbledore said.

"What does the weight of the wand have to do with its performance?" Harry asked.

The other headmaster laughed. "Foolish child!"

"Silence, Igor," Dumbledore said calmly with a hint of annoyance. Igor shut up immediately.

"A very good question," Ollivander interjected. "However it is not the weight of the wand that I'll be checking, but rather if it can function properly."

"Follow up question: what if I don't have a wand?"

"This fool doesn't even have a wand! What a joke!" Igor barked. "I was worried for nothing! Viktor, you have this in the bag!"

"Nonsense, Karkaroff. Fleur is much better than your student," the giant woman snapped.

The champions looked a tad bit uncomfortable but didn't say anything. They were giving Harry a look of shock.

Dumbledore decided to cut in again. "Perhaps Mr. Potter can demonstrate the fact that he doesn't require one?"

"Huh? Sure." Harry replied.

He held out his hand, and a large fire appeared on his palm. The fire took the shape of a rose. As soon as the fire rose was fully materialized, a white ring of light travelled upwards from its base, changing the fire rose to an actual rose.

The silence was a bit uncomfortable for Harry. As was the emotional feedback. All he could sense was utter surprise and even some fear thrown in. The flower, which was still levitating on his palm, dissipated in a shower of light particles.

Everyone, from the wand maker, to the competitors, to the headmasters, were staring at him, their jaws planted on the ground. What they had witnessed was wandless magic the likes of which they had never seen possible.

"Elemental transfiguration," Dumbledore said quietly. "Marvelous. Truly marvelous indeed."

Elemental transfiguration, to his knowledge, was just a theory. No wizard had ever achieved it, at least with fire. It was possible with varying degrees of difficulty with water and air, as they still had mass. Fire was essentially energy. Transfiguring energy to matter that was supposed to be impossible. Yet, Harry Potter had done so. Dumbledore wasn't surprised at the wand-less magic part. He already knew that Harry could do so.

Witnessing Harry perform something that was impossible however? That was new.

Harry was still looking at them, confused. They were impressed by a simple elemental manipulation followed by a conjuration? He then shook himself of those thoughts. Most likely it was the wand-less magic.

"Did I go a bit overboard?" Harry asked the rest.

The question went unanswered when there was a loud flash of light, and in walked a blonde woman wearing a green dress. Her smile didn't match the predatory look in her eyes, covered by spectacles.

"Ah, Ms. Skeeter," Dumbledore said as he composed himself. "The ceremony is yet to be completed. Perhaps you would like to wait a while before you start taking the pictures?"

"Nonsense, Headmaster," Rita Skeeter said with a distinctive purr. "I think we can start the interviews sooner. After all, the nation is simply dying to know about our beloved hero."

"I'm sure it can wait until the end of the ceremony," Dumbledore said firmly. He didn't want to leave any of the Champions with the likes of Skeeter. He was stalling for time, till he got a better reason to throw the woman out. "Garrick, if you would not mind, please begin with, say, Mr. Krum?"

Said wand-maker nodded, and Viktor Krum handed over his wand.

Harry, for his part, watched in mild interest as Ollivander went down the line, passing a few comments about their wands and the wands' composition.

One thing also peeked his interest, in that the French girl was a quarter Veela. Harry wasn't surprised at the fact that he didn't even feel her allure. Sapphire's was way stronger and given that the two of them had grown up together, he was all but accustomed to the Veela allure.

Not to mention, her emotions were also the same as a human's, which had thrown him off initially.

"Now that's finally over, how about an interview, Mr. Harry Potter?" Skeeter said as she looked at Harry.

Harry didn't like the look she was giving him. Almost as if she only saw him as a piece of meat, to be eaten and thrown away. And she was a reporter.

What did Mephisto say about reporters again?

"I would say no such thing as an unbiased media, or even an unbiased reporter. However if you find yourself in a situation where you need to explain exactly why three women are dead and how they were found in the trunk of your car while you were driving them down to the ocean to get rid of the bodies when you were shit faced drunk, just remember that not a single one is going to believe that they were actually Stray Devils who wandered on to your property. So let me tell you kids one thing. If no one saw the crime, I mean, the event, then did that actually happen? Of course not! So just kill the reporter and the police guy and erase them from everyone's memories!" Mephisto then paused." Though a bit harder to do that in a digital age, I suppose."

…Perhaps Harry should not take his advice.

Then again, Harry always did wonder on the validity of that story given Mephisto used magic to, allegedly, kill the reporter and the cops and remove everyone's memory of said humans — essentially erasing them from existence — rather than using his own magic to get rid of them.

On the other hand, he was drunk while that happened, so…

"...and that's why you should leave, Ms. Skeeter."

Harry's head rose a bit at the hint of anger in Dumbledore's tone. While he was wrapped up in his own thoughts, apparently Dumbledore and Skeeter had a whole argument.

"Interviewing them is my job! You're stopping me from doing my job!" Skeeter, unlike the calm and composed Dumbledore, yelled.

Harry looked at the others. Fleur and her Headmistress seemed to be discussing something. Cedric was watching it in mild discomfort. Igor seemed to be enjoying the argument. Krum was… as stony faced as ever.

"No, Ms. Skeeter. You were hired to only report on the Wand Weighing Ceremony. Nowhere in your contract does it state, or give you the right to interview the Champions. Now that the Ceremony is finished, I suggest that you leave." Dumbledore had spoken this calmly, but everyone knew that it was a threat.

Skeeter growled. "This is not over."

The woman glared at everyone. "You hear me! This isn't over!"

With that, she turned around and briskly walked out.

"So, uhh, we done here?" Harry asked.

"Yes, Mr. Potter, we are. You should all prepare for the First Task, which will be held on the 24th of November, at 9 a.m.," Dumbledore informed them all.

Harry had no idea what this girl was on about.

Shortly after the Ceremony, he had run into her. She was of average height, having dark hair and icy blue eyes. With her high cheekbones and the way she carried herself, Harry was certain that she was raised as nobility, or was one herself.

The fact that her emotions also had a tinge of I'm looking down on you vibe to them also made Harry think the same.

When she had seen him, her eyes had widened ever so slightly, before they ran up and down his body. Harry had never felt so judged in his entire life.

"You must be Harry Potter," the girl said. "You don't know me but I think we should get to know each other. I'm Daphne Greengrass, heiress to the Ancient House of Greengrass. A pleasure to meet you."

"Okay," Harry said. "Not that I don't mind making new friends, but why should we get to know each other?"

The girl, Daphne, fixed him with a look. "Because you need someone who is befitting of your stature."

That threw Harry in for a loop. "What do you mean by that?"

"You are the heir to the Ancient House of Potter and Most Ancient and Most Noble House of Peverell. That is why you should surround yourself with those who are of a similar background, especially if you want people to respect you." Daphne said.

That simply left Harry even more confused. She spoke this like it meant something, but her emotions were highly closed off. It was almost as if this is what she was taught and therefore it must be the absolute truth. To be fair, most High Class Devils, especially the Nobles, were similar.

It seemed as if he needed to rile her up if he wanted to get a more clear understanding of this perplexing girl in front of him. It was interesting to him, especially because from what he could gather, Daphne wasn't trying to come off as an arrogant, haughty girl.

This was something that she simply believed in, and there was no undertone of superiority or arrogance to her. Unlike that Draco guy. She genuinely believed that she was trying to help Harry, and wanted to do so.

Her words said one thing, her emotions said something else.

That was interesting.

"Ohh, nobility jargon! I can do that too!" Harry said with a smile. DnD knowledge, don't fail me now! He thought.

"Well met, my lady." Harry said as he bowed. "How may I, Harry of House Potter, be of service?"

The reaction he got was unexpected.

"So you know how to do a proper greeting. Good."

'...wait what?'

"However, the bow is unnecessary. Only bow to those who you know to be above you, and to someone of your stature, only includes the Blacks and the Longbottoms."

Harry couldn't help the small bit of laughter. "Long bottoms are above me?"

Daphne fixed him with an annoyed look. "That is no joke. The current heir to the Longbottom House may be shy, but he might take offence to that, despite the Potters being allied to the Longbottom House for as long back as 200 years. The Longbottoms were, if nothing else, a powerful House."

Harry smiled inwardly. She had gotten a bit worked up. Now, just to make her a tad bit angrier. No doubt a really, juvenile and cringy comment would do the trick. "Huh. Their bottoms must be really something."

To his delight, she did get annoyed just enough.

"Never, and I mean ever, joke about such… juvenile things in a lady's presence." Daphne said with a small growl. "Such comments are distasteful and childish comments could land you in serious trouble."

'I was right. She does come off as a sort of an entitled person, but her emotions say something else. Why did she close a large part of herself away like this?' Harry thought. She had, quite masterfully, stomped down on a lot of emotions as soon as she got more annoyed at him on that singular comment. To him, it was a bit of a mystery.

What had happened to this girl that she had shut out most of her emotions like so?

Whatever it was, it was nothing good. Repressed emotions was more often than not, due to something traumatic. Not necessarily physical trauma either. And if it wasn't trauma, then she was like this because someone had made it their mission to curb her emotional side. Unless that itself was the emotional trauma.

"Okay, okay. I won't do it again." Harry said. "How about we continue this some other time? I have some things I need to do."

Daphne's expression softened, but not by a huge lot. "Fine. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt, just this once. How about tomorrow evening in the library?"

"Fine!" Harry said as he nodded. "I'll take my leave now. Goodbye!"

As he began to walk away from her, he decided to help her get those emotions back. If nothing else, it might just teach her to live a little, and that there's a whole world outside of her small one.

It was a bit sad, really.

Omake: The only reason you should learn Occulumency

Dean Thomas looked at Harry in surprise. "Fuck… you are good!"

Harry smirked, as they sat in the library. Harry had only come here to check it out, had run into Dean, and the two had hit it off from there after Dean had noticed that Harry was wearing a hoodie that had the symbol of the Survey Corps from Attack on Titan.

"You wanna test me again? Go ahead." Harry said, waving his hand.

Dean scrolled through Harry's phone. He was initially surprised to see that Harry's phone was working just fine despite being surrounded by magic, but that curiosity was nipped in the bud by their love for… culture.

"Okay… hah! Here. 311067. Tags. Go." Dean said.

"Easy," Harry said, his smirk not disappearing even once. "Sole female, sole male, uhh, pantyhose, femdom, and… let's see if I remember it right, footjob. Did I get it all?"

Harry wasn't afraid of anyone hearing anything. He had erected a basic sound isolation boundary around them. It wasn't the greatest by any means, and no where as powerful as privacy wards and runes, but it did its job of keeping their extremely important discussion to themselves.

"Ooh. Missed two!" Dean said with a grin. "Nakadashi and hairy. Here's another. 214126."

"214126 you say? That's… fucked up is what that is. It's only lacking the ugly bastard."

Dean looked at the tags. "Yeah, you are right. It is rather fucked up. Okay, here's another: 212556."

Harry closed his eyes. The trick was simple. As he was well versed in the mind arts, it was very easy for him to store a lot of information in his mind, and he could readily access it all. This was a sub-branch of Occulumency, which allowed an user to access all of their memories at a glance.

Most used it for situations where memories were of utmost importance, such as during exams, or a person who could recount his entire life when he wanted to pass on his experiences and knowledge to the future.

Harry felt that it was a waste, and instead he used it to store as much hentai as possible.

Some may call it degeneracy.

Harry wholeheartedly agreed.


	7. Chapter 7

Sapphire and Lavinia were bored. Harry was off to that Wand Weighing thing, leaving them together with Ingvild, who had decided to wander off to find the kitchens. Whether that was her true intention or not, Sapphire didn't know.

She was wondering what she could do to pass the time till Harry returned, when Lavinia had this bright idea of following after Ingvild. Which would not be a bad thing, but the younger girl had decided that almost ten minutes after Ingvild left, and given how much the Castle could change and reshape itself, Sapphire was worried that she would get lost. Or run into trouble. Or both.

And thus, here she was, walking the hallways of Hogwarts, trying to locate her friends. Or would Ingvild be a girlfriend? Friend with benefits? Lover? Sapphire herself was confused of their exact relationship. She should get all of them together and have this sorted out with Harry. She didn't mind being in a harem, especially being raised by Devils, wherein harems were quite common.

Sapphire was also sure that not all women would share the same ideas. Lavinia, for example, didn't act out on her crush on Harry simply because she found this whole thing against everything she was taught about relationships. The consequences of being raised in a monogamous household, Sapphire supposed.

Ingvild, on the other hand, was a mystery to her. Sapphire didn't know if that was because she was interested in Harry, or just the sex. Sapphire herself wouldn't lie that the latter was great. Not that she had any experience apart from the times she spent with Harry.

The most she could gather was that Ingvild spent time with and around Harry simply because the way their Sacred Gears reacted around each other.

Wait. Where was she?

Was this the second floor? Or the third?

Sapphire was so lost in her thoughts that she honestly didn't pay attention to where she was going.

Maybe she was on the fourth? No, she didn't remember climbing up that many stairs. But then again, the stairs moved so much that it was honestly a nuisance. Sapphire didn't understand why these mages didn't just set up permanent teleportation circles for easier movements around the Castle.

Or a network of fixed points that allowed someone to travel, perhaps by using some sort of… a catalyst and the location name to immediately travel to that location.

Had she been raised in the magical societies, she would have known that the Floo system did just that.

Regardless, the first order of business was to figure out where she was. Perhaps she could find a student or a teacher, or someone from the non-teaching staff. They had to have one, right? Sapphire didn't exactly have the same education as most humans, as she was homeschooled with Harry, but she knew that schools tended to have janitors, security guards, assistant teachers, etc.

Sapphire supposed in a magical school there would be no need for janitors or security guards, but what about the rest?

To her delight, she spotted a dark haired boy. He was of average height, wearing the Hogwarts school uniform that covered his entire body. Sapphire considered herself lucky that she didn't need to wear those things. Those robes looked hot and stuffy.

"Excuse me, but could you tell me where I am?" Sapphire asked as she approached the boy.

Sapphire scowled inwardly as he blushed, his pale cheeks turning pink when he saw her. She was wearing the allure suppressor, but apparently that wasn't enough as his eyes unfocused, and a goofy look came up on his face. A clear sign of the allure taking hold. Either that or this boy had fallen for her immediately. Sapphire didn't know what was worse.

Well, he could stare as long as he didn't touch, Sapphire reasoned with herself. With the kind of attention her Instagram page got, she was more than used to it.

"Oh, ummm, hi, I'm Theodore, and uhh," the boy tried to speak.

Sapphire kept a cool look on her face, no matter how annoyed she was. As long as he answered her questions, she was alright with it. This allure sucked!

"Right. Where we are… oh yes, the third floor," the boy stammered out. Before he could say exactly where, Sapphire interrupted him.

"Right. Do you know the way to the kitchen?" Sapphire asked.

Theodore stammered out a no.

Sapphire huffed, not particularly annoyed at the boy, and just muttered out a thank you and left him.

She didn't pay attention to the fact that he was gawking at her at all.

In Theo's perspective, that couldn't have gone any worse. First, a hot girl approaches him, asking for directions. All his ideas and lines that he usually used to flirt ran dry as soon as he saw her up close. He felt this aura wash up over him, essentially turning him to goo.

Then, instead of answering her question, he just stammered. Stammered! That was unheard of! After which, she asked where the kitchens were, and instead of saying, literally anything else, he says no, which obviously made her even more annoyed at him.

He could have just said "Of course I know! Let me show you!" he straight up says no! And now he had ruined all of his chances with her.

Unless she was already in a relationship with Potter, that is. Theo had his own code. If a girl was taken then he would respect that. Harmless flirting was fine with him, but he wouldn't try to steal someone else's girl.

Theo shook his head. If Tracey found out about this, there would be no stopping her.

Ingvild didn't take too long to find the kitchens. She just followed the little gremlin things that seemed to pop in and out. The same things had brought in their food during the meals, and were fast enough that most didn't even notice. They didn't react to her following them, so she assumed that they either were ignorant of her, or didn't seem to think that she was a threat. Either way worked for her; she wasn't going to harm them.

But their teleportation spell was clever, if a bit difficult to track. She was delayed a little bit when she noticed that Lavinia was following her, and decided to slow down enough to let her catch up.

"How do you track them?" Lavinia asked as she walked side-by-side with Ingvild.

"Hmm? That is a technique that needs to be honed. Just feel for their individual presence and lock on to it. When they teleport, locate that same presence as far as possible. Luckily, they don't seem to be teleporting for more than a few feet before stopping to clean something or do some other tidying." Ingvild answered.

"And you're sure they'll lead you to the kitchen?"

"They must go there eventually, right?" Ingvild replied. "Either that or we'll just have to find an alternate way to get some extra food. I wonder if they make pizza."

"Given that the meals had exclusively British food, I doubt that."

"That bouillabaisse wasn't." Ingvild countered.

Lavinia thought about it. "Wait. Why can't you just use a teleportation circle or something to go to a pizzeria?"

Ingvild stopped. She hadn't considered that. Sure, teleportation circles required preparation to create, and you had to know the place you were going to teleport to before hand, i.e., had to physically been there, but otherwise there was no reason why she couldn't just do that.

Hell, devils even got around that restriction as their Seals could work as a beacon to teleport to. Well, as a half devil, she didn't have any Seals, as she wasn't given any. Or any peerage pieces, but that was besides the point.

The only issue was that she had never been to a restaurant. Most of her childhood was spent in Hell, where the devils that were loyal to her family had hidden her away, then at Grigori when she inadvertently hypnotized herself into a very deep sleep and was rescued from it by Harry.

She turned to Lavinia. If she knew a good one, Lavinia could create the circle herself. "What good pizza place have you been to?"

"Oh, umm... last year my step parents took me to this amazing pizza joint when we visited New York for my summer vacation." Lavinia answered. She didn't say the real reason for the trip, which was essentially her father's business trip and her mother and herself were tagalongs. Lavinia herself had never even left her hotel room until her father had the idea to celebrate after, and decided to go to a pizza joint because he was cheap like that.

"Cool. Got any money on you? I left my wallet in the room."

"Wait. You want to go right now?! What about Harry and Sapphire! They'll want to come too!"

Ingvild didn't bat an eye. "We'll bring them some, don't worry! Or we'll just do take-out!"

"But...but can we even do that? I mean a magical school must have some provisions against people just teleporting in and out, right? Or else students would just teleport here and there without regulations!"

"We won't know till we try. You still haven't answered the question." Ingvild said.

"….no, I don't have any money on me." Lavinia answered.

"Shame. That pizza was as good as ours. Although we could just head back, grab a credit card, and leave!" Ingvild said. "Let's just do that!"

With that, she turned around and began to walk the same way she came from.

Lavinia shook her head, following the other girl, before she realized something. "You mean your credit card, right? Right?!"

Ingvild didn't reply.

Sapphire felt that she had looked everywhere. She still hadn't found the kitchens, and she was sure she was going in circles. The other problem was that in a place with so many humans and all of them possessing magic, it was hard to pinpoint Lavinia's unique magical signature, even if she was within Sapphire's range.

Which was why she considered herself lucky when she ran into Harry, who seemed to be coming around the corner. She did notice that another girl was also there, but she was walking away in the other direction, so Sapphire paid her no mind.

"Oh hey!" Harry greeted as he saw her.

"Save the hey for later. Help me find Lavinia and Ingvild," Sapphire replied.

"That was rude," Harry said as the two began to walk in the same direction Sapphire came from. "And why? Are they lost?"

"I don't know," Sapphire said. "Which is all the more reason to locate them. They could be lost."

"So we're going to look for them on the off-chance that they might be lost in this otherwise non-threatening castle?" Harry still didn't see what the big deal was yet. Lavinia and Ingvild both could take care of themselves. It wasn't like there was a deadly magical snake that could kill you with a glance hiding somewhere or something.

That was an unsafe school environment and Harry was sure that Hogwarts, a school considered the best in the world, would not have anything unsafe.

"Non threatening? I ran into some ghosts!" Sapphire said. "Granted, they seem to be feeding off the latent magic present in the castle that must be keeping them from going insane and go on a murder spree, but still!"

"Ingvild can hypnotize them and Lavinia can freeze them," Harry said off-handedly. "But why are we going the same way you came?"

"That's because I was following you," Sapphire said.

"You're following me? I was following you!"

"This is getting us nowhere. Ok, lets go in the direction that girl went. Who was she anyways?" Sapphire suggested and asked.

"She ran into me after the Wand Weighing thing. Her name is Daphne Greengrass or something." Harry replied as they turned around. "She was telling me how I am the heir to some old family, and that makes me important or something. I was more interested in riling her up so I could determine why she had essentially sealed herself away."

Sapphire turned to look at him. "Wait, sealed away literally or figuratively?"

"Figuratively, of course." Harry replied.

"And you're in this society's upper class or something?"

"Maybe? Don't know for sure. The titles she used seemed made up. Like I'm talking Mephisto being drunk and decided to create titles for old, distinguished families made up. And then these families adopted it because it made them sound even more important than they were," Harry said. Seriously, Most Ancient and Most Noble? Was there any other method of saying "I'm a pretentious prick?"

"I doubt that. Mephisto seems to hate these guys."

Harry gave her a side-long look. "He also hates anti-vaxxers but we all know how that started."

Sapphire paused. "Oh. Right."

"And where did Ingvild go anyways?" Harry asked.

"The kitchens, I think." Sapphire answered. "But I haven't found the kitchens at all."

"Have you tried the ground floor?" Harry asked. "I mean isn't every single kitchen usually on the ground floor? Next or near the place all the food is eaten?"

Sapphire turned to glare at Harry. "…...mention this moment of stupidity to anyone and I will blue-ball you permanently."

Harry laughed good-naturedly. In all honesty, Sapphire's threatening game was rather weak. Now, had she threatened to burn every single Servant in his game… Harry shuddered. That would have hit him where it would hurt the most.

It was almost dinner time when Ingvild and Lavinia returned to Hogwarts. Turns out they had no security against teleportation circles. Lavinia felt that was highly irresponsible of them, and they should probably fix that. Ingvild felt that was a thing to exploit, and every student should learn how.

But when they returned, they had a very angry Sapphire to deal with. She had almost turned into her avian form when she ripped a new one into Ingvild for taking Lavinia out of here without telling them first.

"I told you we should have told them," Lavinia said softly.

Ingvild sighed. "I'm sorry about that, I really am, but on the plus side, pizza party?"

Sapphire's eyes narrowed at the two. "Don't think that I will be easily swayed by pizza, missy! You had this bright idea of leaving this castle, without telling Harry or myself, go all the way to New York, buy eight large pizzas, donuts, and all those clothes and a goddamn 70 inch LED TV? Where are we even going to plug in the TV in a place with no sockets?!"

Unfortunately for her, Harry chose this moment to enter their living quarters. "Is that pizza! And donuts!"

Ingvild smiled at him. "Yup! Lavinia and I went to New York and bought all of this! With this card!"

Harry grinned. "Nice! And wait. Show me that card."

Ingvild gave him the card.

"Oh this the one I picked up at Mephisto's place before we left. I wonder who it belongs to…"

Meanwhile in Greenland

Penemue glared at a sweating Azazel. "Mind explaining why over fifteen thousand dollars were charged on the Grigori Employee Credit? Specifically the one that belongs to you?"

Back at Hogwarts

Harry shrugged. "Eh, I'm sure it's fine."

"Harry! Stop taking her side and focus! She was why I wasted nearly three hours waiting in that kitchen, surrounded by those House Elves who didn't leave me alone because they wanted to serve me something or the other every ten minutes!" Sapphire nearly screeched, but that was because her avian form was slowly starting to take hold.

Harry sighed. "Ingvild, were you in any danger?"

Ingvild shook her head, as did Lavinia. "Nope. Pretty uneventful trip, really. Teleported there and back quite easily, too," She answered.

"See? No reason to worry, Sapphire! And besides, now we know that teleportation circles work even in here, we can go do whatever we want when we want! This is great!"

Sapphire sighed, before her human traits started to reappear. "Okay, look. You wanted to have fun. I can understand that. But please, take me with you next time, okay?"

"Sure!" Ingvild replied. "But admit it. You were jealous that you weren't invited."

Sapphire didn't reply, but huffed. It confirmed Ingvild's accusation, however.

"Anyway, Harry, what did you find at the library about this society's government and families?" Sapphire asked. He had told her that he was going to get 'tutored' by that Daphne girl tomorrow, when Harry intended to find out why a large side of her repressed and buried deep down. For that, he needed to hit where it hurt the most: the classism and elitism that she took pride in.

Which was why he had decided to research on his own about it before going to meet up with her. It would be quite interesting.

Harry smiled. "Quite a bit. Did you know that some of them unironically believe that mages born to non-mages got their magic because they leeched off of 'Pureblood' children and that is why they have children who are born 'without magic?' They even call such children squibs."

Sapphire scowled. "What's next? Do they also believe that swearing on someone's magic is a thing?"

"Well…"

"You must have found something positive, right?" Lavinia asked. Even she knew that oaths on magic were purely symbolic and had no real consequences if broken. After all, what was the point of a criminal justice system? Just force the perpetrator to swear on his magic that he was innocent of whatever he was accused of. No need to have a trial or anything.

"Most of their political structure is actually quite reminiscent of Underworld's. So I'm guessing that it should be easy to understand, but not necessarily to navigate as such." Harry replied. "However, it is not as… liberal? No that is not the correct word, but I would say that it basically has no inclusion policies. No ways to make an outsider feel welcome, and highly backward laws regarding non-humans. Other than that, pretty standard stuff, really."

"I see," Sapphire said, before she turned to Ingvild and Lavinia. "Back to the topic at hand, what in the ever loving fuck are we going to do with a TV?! We don't even have cable or satellite!"

Ingvild smirked as she held up another box. "Got you covered with this WiFi router and modem! See?"

Harry shook his head. "I don't think you understand how to connect to the internet…"

Ingvild had essentially bought a TV, a WiFi router and modem, but there was no service to connect said modem to. Meaning, the modem wouldn't connect to the internet at all.

"We should probably return those," Sapphire said. "It's practically useless."

Ingvild pouted. "I thought this place was boring on its own so I just wanted some form of entertainment!"

"Let's just use the mobile data for now, okay?" Sapphire suggested. "Much easier that way."

"Okay."

While they were arguing, Harry and Lavinia began to eat the pizza. They would have to make another trip to return the TV and router tomorrow.

Harry was just beginning to get comfortable in his bed when the door knocked.

"Harry, are you up?" Sapphire asked from the other side.

Harry felt that he had two options. One was to ignore Sapphire and let her believe that he was sleeping, and hope that she would go to her room. The other was to let her in, and hope that she just wanted to talk.

….not that he would say no if she wanted to do other things, but then Ingvild would want to join, and they'd have to soundproof the whole room to not disturb Lavinia, and that was a whole hassle. Soundproofing an area with magic was not as easy as one would think. One mistake and the sound could get amplified rather than isolated.

"Yeah, for now," Harry decided to reply, loud enough that she could hear.

"Can I come in?"

Harry just used his magic to open the door for her. He was way to comfortable in the bed to get up now.

"Lazy ass," Sapphire commented as she entered, closing the door behind her.

"So, what's up?"

Sapphire sighed as she sat on Harry's bed, by his left hand. "Just… Ingvild. I don't think Ingvild takes me seriously at all. I know I shouldn't be this angry at her for taking Lavinia shopping, essentially, but…"

Harry smiled, not that Sapphire could see it in the dark room. "You were worried, and that's perfectly fine. I think had Ingvild put herself and-slash-or Lavinia in any actual danger, or gotten hurt, then she would have no doubt, felt guilty. Even more so when you tore into her."

Sapphire huffed as she lay down, wrapping his arm around her. Harry was now spooning her. He raised a brow at that, but didn't resist. "I guess."

"Remember all the times we got mad at Irma when we would go out late at night and essentially come back early morning? It's the same thing," Harry reasoned.

"I hate it when you make sense. It's hard to argue back," Sapphire said as she turned around in his arms, so she was facing him. "What do you think I should do about her?"

"Just sit down and talk," Harry said. "She's reasonable enough, but remember, she most likely thinks like a devil. So obviously, she will think of herself before she thinks of anyone else. And that may be why she decided to take Lavinia all the way to New York. Not for Lavinia, or any of us, but for herself."

"I think that is a good idea, especially if she's with you for more than sex."

Harry looked at her with confusion. "What? I haven't exactly picked up any such–"

"Look. I don't need to tell you this, but emotions can be complicated. Especially given the unique ways both of your Sacred Gears react to each other. You feel quite comfortable with her and she feels the same around you. Am I wrong?" Sapphire asked.

"No, no you're not. And is this jealousy or protectiveness? I can feel both from you," Harry teased.

"Why would I be jealous? I'm completely fine being in an open or polyamorous relationship," Sapphire said. "But what about the others?"

"We should probably have a discussion about it, preferably after Kuroka gets back." Harry replied. He didn't bring up that she sounded like she trying to convince herself of what she said than she tried to convince him.

Sapphire nodded as she buried her face into Harry's chest. Thankfully he wore soft t-shirts to bed.

"...so you spending the night here or…"

"I'm too comfortable to leave."

"I see."


	8. Chapter 8

The library was quite bigger than Sapphire expected. She was here for two reasons: do her own research about this society, and spy on Harry as he talked with that Daphne girl.

…though to be fair, Harry was well aware of her presence.

She had come here well before the two of them, using various spells to read multiple books very quickly. Magic made multiple things possible, such as the ability to read even a million words within an hour. If she wanted, she could go faster, but that made her head hurt.

As she was returning a set of books back to the shelf, she spotted the prefect who had showed them around. The bushy haired girl, Hermione, looked at her too. Then her eyes went to the books Sapphire was carrying.

"Those are very advanced books, Sapphire," she said.

Sapphire didn't particularly think so. They were books on 'wandless magic', some about the governmental structure, some on magic theory. She even had a book or two on the day-to-day life here and the favourite pass-times of an average wizard.

"Perhaps," said Sapphire. "But they answered what I wanted to know, so that's that, I guess."

"And what's that? How to do wandless magic?" Hermione asked.

Sapphire shook her head. "Quite the opposite. Magic is magic. Performing it with a wand or without is of little consequence. Of course, depending on that stick you're carrying and believing that magic is impossible without it is… beyond stupid."

Hermione was confused. Sure, none of them were carrying wands, but that had to be a mistake on their part? A really stupid mistake, that Hermione had no doubt that Headmaster Dumbledore must have fixed by now by allowing them to leave and come back with their wands.

After all, the Wand Weighing Ceremony was just yesterday. Hermione herself had not heard of any rumors or stories of the event, but she did know for sure that Harry had attended. This must mean that Dumbledore allowed him to go and retrieve his wand, at last least according to Hermione.

"But, we do need wands to perform magic. Every spell is cast by saying the incantation and moving the wand in a set pattern, or the wand movement," Hermione countered.

Sapphire pondered if she should give her a demonstration. But decided against it. It would draw attention, and this was a library, so she didn't want to disturb anyone.

"Come, Hermione, let us sit," Sapphire said as she led the other girl to a secluded desk that she was using earlier. It even had a perfect view of Harry and the girl he was sitting with.

Hermione simply sat down. She could not wait to hear what Sapphire had to say. If it proved interesting and challenging enough, then she could even ask her professors about it to confirm it.

"Like I said, magic is magic. However, it does have certain rules. All of these rules are quite arbitrary and can be toyed with, once again however, within limits," Sapphire said. When Hermione nodded, Sapphire continued. "What do you think magic is governed by? As in what makes a spell work?"

Hermione looked at her oddly. "I just told you. The incantation with its correct pronunciations, wand movements, and—"

"None of that matters," Sapphire said. "All that matters is belief. Believing that whatever you want to do using magic will happen. If there's even a slightest doubt, your magic will not allow that to happen. With me so far?"

"But if that is all, then everyone would do wandless magic."

"And what's stopping them?" Sapphire asked.

"Because it's impossible," Hermione said with full confidence.

"No, you believe it to be impossible. So, try as much as you wish, but because of that unwavering belief, your magic won't allow you to perform a single spell without a wand, or an incantation," Sapphire said. "Harry and I were taught by Mep… a very knowledgeable teacher… and he taught us that being a mage meant that you have to be as open minded as possible, and the word 'impossible' should not exist. After all, it's magic. Who's to say what is possible and what isn't?"

Sapphire avoided saying Mephisto's name because of what happened in the bank.

Hermione didn't want to believe that. It went against everything that she had been taught about magic. But then again, why did accidental magic happen? She surely didn't have a wand when she made all the glass explode over a tantrum.

"So wands are useless?"

"I didn't say that," Sapphire said. "A wand is a tool, and like every other tool, it has its uses. For one, it does make learning magic that much simple, as this school has proved."

"What do you mean by that?"

Hermione was a bit surprised as the other girl took her time to answer. Had she been thrown in for a loop? Did she require a lot of time to get her answer?

The reason was fairly simple: Sapphire was currently (and discreetly) paying attention to Harry as he was almost falling asleep in front of his 'tutor', who had yet to notice. Either she was under an illusion or she simply didn't care.

Sapphire looked back at Hermione. "You're what they call a muggleborn, yes?"

"And what of it?" Hermione asked, her tone turning icy.

"Then you must have compared how magic is taught here as how science is taught in non magical schools," Sapphire replied, paying her hostile tone no heed.

Hermione relaxed a bit, and nodded. She had. It was impossible not to. Theory after theory, law after law, each named after the wizard or witch who had discovered them.

"That is the issue," Sapphire explained. "Inherently, there is nothing wrong with thinking of magic as another branch of science and learning it that way. However, the way you are taught about how to cast spells is too rigid. Think about it. If your wand doesn't move in a certain pattern, if you don't correctly pronounce a certain word and so on, you believe that a spell will fail. So, whenever something goes against that norm, it must be what?"

Hermione had her answer ready. "Silent casting is a thing, you know. And only exceptional wizards or witches can do that."

"Once again, wrong. I just told you. Your belief is holding you back. Open your mind, Hermione," Sapphire said. "Unlike this school, the world is a beautiful place if you see it that way."

Hermione pondered over it. "Wait, what do you mean, unlike this school?"

Sapphire sighed sadly. "This library has almost over six thousand unique books. That's not even going into the duplicate books it has. And yet, not a single fiction book can be found. Well, apart from a few children tales and ballads that are clearly from the Dark Ages."

"Why would there be? This is a school library?" Hermione questioned.

"And don't mundane schools have Lord of the Rings? Or Narnia? Or even non fantasy classics such as Pride and Prejudice and Tom Sawyer or even Huckleberry Finn? Or even Shakespeare's plays?"

"But those schools have English as a language to be studied and—"

"Fictional books, not just the classics, but even modern ones, have uses well beyond a nonsensical book report that no one is going to read," Sapphire interjected. "They can provide a different insight into the world, a different perspective. In certain cases, they even provide an insight into a society's culture and beliefs. And, even give you unique and original ideas. All of which is very important when pertaining to magic."

Harry was a prime example. A lot of his spells and attacks were designed after most of the anime he watched. He even called his Balance Breaker a Noble Phantasm, and referred to his patronus as a Stand.

"I still don't see your point."

Sapphire huffed in exasperation. It was to be expected. Harry was only partially correct with his reasoning of why Mephisto hated these people.

They were stagnant. Out of ideas. The lack of fiction in here, again aside from children's tales, told her plenty. But it was evident in the art as well. The castle had artwork from multiple eras, however the style had stopped evolving.

Say what you want about modern art, but it had its expression. As cameras could capture real life images extremely well, artists began to draw and paint pieces that may not have any form and were abstract, but it still had expression. Emotion, that the artist could capture, not in someone's face, but in the painting as a whole.

Sapphire had yet to see anything like that in this castle that was… expressive. Sure, the paintings were alive, but each new piece felt like an imitation of the one that came before. The castle itself may be magic, and even sentient to a degree, but it felt empty. There was no evolution here.

No originality, no freedom for growth, no progress. That lead to people here just existing. Sapphire would hate living here. She did not know what their music or theatre was like, but she didn't hold any expectations. Of course, they would not have movies, as they had yet to invent that concept.

And Sapphire was also done talking to Hermione. If the girl didn't want to believe that she could be much more greater than this, that was her problem. Fortunately for her, it looked like Harry was finished too.

For the past fifteen minutes or so, Harry was struggling to stay awake. Daphne was boring him. It wasn't the way she explained or anything, but rather it was the topic of discussion.

He hated politics. Sure, he could 'speak the language' as it were, but Harry would rather stay out of anything to do with political issues. Too many headaches in politics.

Daphne was just droning on about how his family was important and hers was important, and something about holding seats, and something about voting and something about 'Light' and 'Dark'. There was some other thing called a 'Neutral' too.

Well, at least it wasn't a two party system, Harry thought idly when he had heard that. That always lead to people voting for who they believed to be the lesser evil, who may not be the right choice.

"Is this all you do?" Harry interrupted Daphne as she was saying something about keeping in mind who he hangs out with or else people may get some wrong ideas about his alliances.

"Huh?" Daphne asked as she stopped mid-sentence.

"Having to always watch over your back, wondering how some random person will react if you hung out with someone? Constantly worry about how your words might be interpreted?" Harry asked. "Think multiple times of someone's lineage before even attempting to make pleasant conversation?"

"You misunderstood me," Daphne said. "All I said was that, as not only the Boy-Who-Lived but also the heir to the House of Potter, you have to be careful about who you are seen with and the way you present yourself, especially if you want people to give you the proper respect deserving of your station."

"Ah, but who decides that the people I am seen with are worthy of… well, whatever criteria you put forward." Harry was honestly surprised. Unlike the previous encounter, she didn't get riled up by that. Her voice was quite… calm, collected.

Harry realized why. Occulumency, used to do the most idiotic thing, at least according to Harry. Turn off emotional senses. Of the many things that could affect magic, emotions played a major role. Whereas belief made impossible possible through magic, emotions could affect the strength of one's magical abilities.

To turn off emotions using Occulumency, you were intentionally weakening your own magic. It did have its very niche uses, but what Daphne was doing was dangerous.

By Harry's estimate, she had been suppressing emotions for a long time. Which, in turn, had a drastic response on her mental health.

"You know what," Harry said before Daphne could respond. "Why don't you tell me a little something about, say, your first year in this school? Maybe that could give me a little insight into what you mean."

Daphne looked at him in confusion. "How would my first year help?"

"Oh y'know, what friends did you make, who did you let yourself seen with, that kind of a thing." Harry replied.

"I was only 'seen with' as you put it, the heir to House of Nott, Theodore, and the younger daughter of the head of the House of Davis, Tracey."

Harry, once again, noted that the way she spoke about them wasn't the way she would speak about friends, but rather business, or in this case, political partners. From his research, he knew that the Davis House went back eight generations, and the Notts went back ten. Harry had no idea how much that mattered, but he didn't particularly care, either.

"Okay, but what kind of fun did you get to?" Harry asked.

Daphne once again looked at him in confusion. "What?"

"C'mon, don't tell me that all you did was build future connections all the time!"

"We just studied and attended classes." Daphne replied.

Harry sighed to himself. This was… concerning. Sure, even he studied and attended classes when he was eleven. But there were so many times that he and Sapphire would just go have fun with their Devil friends.

Like pranking Tannin by mixing pixie dust in his breakfast. While it didn't work as intended because they were stupid (and eleven) and didn't check that what they were adding wasn't pixie dust at all. Fortunately it was way too little to affect a Dragon.

But Daphne had no such memories, not because she was obliviated, but because she simply didn't remember. Or rather, chose not to remember.

The brain was a very interesting organ. As long as anything in life had an emotional value, it would remember it. But give something zero value, and it simply would deign it unworthy and won't remember it.

This was what Daphne had done.

By stamping out her emotions for so long, her brain had forgotten about what made life fun. It didn't assign any value to anything, so she couldn't recall her first year.

Harry should have realized this yesterday, but a part of him had assumed that she knew how to defend herself against an empath. The reality was a lot darker.

Daphne Greengrass had depression. As to why she had it, it clicked in Harry's mind. Her manner of talking about her friends, the way she carried herself, her fixation on lineage and traditions, all pointed to her parents having drilled that in her mind, at the cost of her own happiness.

"I see," Harry said, finishing his analysis. "Let me just ask you something else, then. Something, far more… personal, if you will."

Daphne considered it. "Go ahead."

"When was the last time you did something because you yourself wanted to, not because it was expected of you?" Harry asked.

Daphne noticed the change of his tone. All this time, it was lighthearted, like he didn't take anything she told him seriously. She didn't mind, all she needed to do was ensure that he saw her way in the end. But his voice took a sharp serious tone at that question.

It threw her off course. "Wh-what?"

Harry shook his head as he got up. "Until you can answer that, I think we're done."

"What? Why?" Daphne asked, getting up after him.

"Because it is fun," Harry replied simply. "Try to have some fun, sometimes. No, seriously. Learn how to have fun."

He then left, leaving behind a very confused Daphne.

"Why does she interest you that much?" Sapphire asked as she caught up with Harry as he left Daphne by herself.

"Have you seen that ass?" Harry asked.

Sapphire glanced back at Daphne. "I can't exactly see from this angle."

"Shame," Harry said dryly. "In all seriousness, she has depression. Not the 'I wanna end it all' type but the 'I'm dead inside and life has no real meaning' type. How long do you think before her magic responds accordingly and starts to decay her mind and body?"

Sapphire frowned. "That is a rare complication."

"But it could happen. I want to prevent that. If nothing else, she gets out of it, starts enjoying life again. What's so bad about that?" Harry asked.

Sapphire shook her head. She both liked and disliked his habit of wanting to help everyone with their problems. The good thing was that he almost never did it for free.

"Besides," Harry interjected. "A young girl living in what seems to be an oppressive household, wanting to break free but can't. Does that remind you of someone?"

Sapphire's eyes widened in realization. "You think that under different circumstances Lavinia would have ended up like that?"

Harry nodded. "Yup. The difference being that Lavinia was brave enough to run. Daphne isn't. What I could get off of her mind was that she does want to break free. But, at the same time, she is quite afraid of disappointing her parents. So, she does whatever they want her to, not what she wants to. This internal turmoil results in her creating a shell, a icy persona that is a defensive mechanism."

"And that in turn resulted in her using Occulumency to turn off her emotions," Sapphire completed Harry's chain of thought. "You have your work cut out for you."

"Unfortunately." Harry muttered.

The day of the first Task arrived.

It was a clouded day, and all the competitors were gathered in a tent that was expanded on the inside.

Harry looked around, noticing the nervousness and certainly fear on each of the others. Did they know something he didn't? Harry wouldn't put it beyond them to cheat or use loopholes to find out exactly what they were doing in this task.

If Harry wanted to, he would have done the same. The difference was that Harry enjoyed planning on the fly rather than going in prepared.

After all, as Mephisto says, the answer to everything is magic.

"So… you seem… confident," said one of his competitors. He wore yellow and black uniform, with the Hogwarts logo on the left chest. Harry tried to remember his name… but couldn't. The other boy hadn't exactly made an impression on him. "Got some secret plan?"

"Oh you know, walk in, do magic, walk out. That sort of a thing," Harry replied. In all fairness however, depending on what he was facing, the second step could entirely be optional.

A bright flash of light interrupted them. Rita Skeeter walked in, making a beeline for Harry.

"Mr. Potter! I'm sure you remember me, Rita Skeeter, yes?" the blonde woman said, ignoring the Hogwarts champion. Given that Dumbledore was in the audience stands with the rest of the judges, she needed to be quick in getting an opportunity to 'tell the truth'. "May I ask you a few questions? Perhaps as an interview?"

Harry shrugged. He was more than aware that she was a tabloid reporter and would probably run his name through the mud, but he didn't particularly care. After all, he wasn't going to be interacting with them after this whole tournament was over and he had gotten his money back, nor was he going to apply for jobs or anything in this country.

All in all, their opinions of him were completely insignificant to him, no matter how positive or negative they may be.

Rita took that as an yes. "The people wish to know, Mr. Potter, why did you not attend Hogwarts when you were eleven?"

The other people in the tent also turned to him, wanting to know his answer.

"Because as an eleven year old that decision wouldn't be mine to make?" Harry asked/answered. Now, he wasn't aware of how much legal freedom was allowed to minors in this country, but he doubted that an eleven year old could not just pick and choose what school they wanted to attend without the consent of their parent/guardian.

"Well, why did your… guardians not allow you to attend Hogwarts?" Rita changed the question.

"And I would know that, how, exactly?" Harry knew exactly why, but he wanted to troll this woman as much as possible.

"Hmm, well, moving on. During the Wand Weighing Ceremony, it was noted that you could perform wandless magic, and conjured fire on your palm. Experts claim that such a feat is impossible, so you must have been hiding your wand. Why go to such extents to make yourself seem powerful?"

Harry smiled inwardly, folding his arms and conjuring a stick in his hand. He made sure that it was around ten inches long and looked like a wand. With a mischievous look in his eyes, he produced the stick."Oops. You caught me."

Rita had a 'Ha! Got you!" look on her face. "Why resort to deception, Mr. Potter?"

"You said it yourself, Ms. Skeeter!" Harry said.

"The truth comes out then! Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, is nothing but a cheater and an attention seeker!" Rita said as her quill quickly wrote down whatever she was saying. Seemingly happy that she got an exposé, Rita left the tent.

Harry could barely hold his laughter as the other champions looked at him in shock and disgust, apparently having bought his tale. Well, if there's anything like a tournament arc in this… tournament, they'll be in for a rude awakening. Perhaps he should hold on to this stick to further complete the illusion.

Shortly after, the same two men who had come to Mephisto's house in Germany showed up, to explain the rules and their task.

Harry sighed in slight disappointment. Get a golden egg from an Hungarian Horntail?

If he wasn't half(?) quarter(?) whatever, dragon, then this might have been challenging.

Harry was the last to enter the arena.

It was a stony arena floor, with rocks of varying heights everywhere making it look like a mountainous region. He could see the dragon on one side, and within her reach, was the golden egg.

The dragon had yet to notice him, but that was fine. These types of dragons were Lesser Dragons, and while they were dangerous to even Mid- to High- class Devils, they lacked the strength — both physical and that of their flames — as that of a Dragon King such as Tannin.

Now, Harry could just see if the egg was summonable. Boring, but practical. Also, he was quite sure that the judges had warded the egg against that sort of a thing.

He pointed the stick he had conjured at the egg and tried it anyways. His hunch was correct. The egg didn't even move an inch.

Harry idly heard the commentary, with the commentators wondering what he was about to do and what his strategy was.

It was going to be a simple strategy, as Harry realized something. Instead of summoning the egg to him, he summoned the entire stone on which the egg was kept to himself. This had the consequence of the egg being flung towards him and he easily caught it.

Unfortunately, this had the Horntail noticing that one of her eggs was being taken away from her, and she rose, smoke coming out of her mouth. Harry paid her no mind as he stopped the stone (and the egg) just an inch in front of him, and grabbed his objective.

At the same time, the dragon spewed her flames at him. Harry put the rock in between himself and the flames. He could, obviously, stand in those flames and be completely unharmed. However, he wasn't sure if the egg could handle the heat.

That, and he wasn't exactly wearing fire proof clothes. He didn't exactly want to expose himself to the crowd.

The Horntail stopped her flame after a long time, pausing to take a deep breath in. Harry let loose the heated rock, hurling it at the dragon. As it approached the dragon, the rock suddenly transformed into a bunch of sheep that began to run away from the large predator.

This had the intended effect of the dragon being distracted by so many sheep running around her. She snapped at some of them, trying to get to her egg.

Unfortunately for her, Harry had left the arena with his prize.

Harry scowled at the scores as he sat in infirmary. The nurse had been quite adamant on giving him a check up despite having sustained no injuries.

With a total of forty two, he was second. Well didn't matter. Two more tasks to overtake that Bulgarian guy.

He sighed as he looked at the egg in his hands. Apparently it contained a clue about the location of their next task. As he spotted one of the judges, an idea popped in his head. He walked over to the portly man, holding the egg in his arms.

"Mr. Bagsman?" Harry asked as approached Ludo Bagman.

"Its Bagman, Harry!" the man corrected cheerfully. "Now, now! I know what you want, and no, unfortunately I can't tell you the secret to the egg!"

"Okay, but can I ask just one question?"

"Hmm. As long as it's nothing to do with the egg, sure!"

"Is the next task also a highly publicized event?" Harry asked.

"Why, yes of course! The tickets are already sold out and they went on sale yesterday! All of Britain, Bulgaria and France will be watching you four!" Bagman said joyously.

"Sweet," Harry said, as he prepared a teleportation circle after the other man left.

"This is the best!" Harry said with a grin as he teleported away, his 'wand' being left behind on the infirmary bed.

"That sucks."

Harry scowled at Sapphire as they sat in their living quarters.

"Tell me about it. The egg is actually made out of Leprechaun gold, and will disappear after its intended purpose is over. And to think that I was going to sell almost one kilogram of gold..." Harry muttered.

Harry had gotten it appraised at a black market gold dealer who was recommended by Mephisto. No one was going to purchase Leprechaun gold.

" Wait," Lavinia cut in." Don't you need that for the next task or something?"

"Yeah, well, the next task is a publisized event as well. You know what that means? I don't need to figure out the location or what or even when the next task is, it would literally be announced country and school wide," Harry answered. "The classes will have a holiday if it's on a weekday, the reporters will come in and the like. How exactly are they going to keep that a secret?"

"Right." Lavinia said.

"Well…anyways. If nothing else, I'm gonna go sleep now," Harry said as he got up to go to bed.

Sapphire shook her head in amusement before she realized something. "Wait. Where's Ingvild?"

"She… is in her bedroom. Online shopping using that credit card we used the other day."

"Really? I didn't know that Amazon delivered here?" Sapphire asked.

"She isn't shopping on Amazon."

Meanwhile, in Azazel's office

"Uhhh Penemue, I can explain..." Azazel said fearfully as he backed up into a wall.

"Normally I don't kink-shame, but… why the ever loving fuck does your company card have a bill for…" Penemue looked at the bill in her hand. "a 240 Volt FuckMaster Pro 5000 blowup latex doll with 6 speed pulsating vagina, elasticized anus with non-drip semen collection tray, together with optional built in realistic orgasm scream surround sound system with customizable bust and ass?!" She then tore the bill. "AND WHO THE FUCK IS GOING TO PAY THE CREDIT CARD BILL OF FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND U.S. DOLLARS AZAZEL?!"

"I… didn't purchase th-that," Azazel said in a fearful whisper.

"Then why is it being sent to your personal home address?!"

Back at Hogwarts

Ingvild smiled wickedly. The next item could also be turned into a futa, complete with fully functioning testicles. And the one after that was meant to simulate non-consentual tentacle fantasies. All were being shipped to Azazel's home.


	9. Chapter 9

Hogsmeade was a nice little village, Harry decided. With its pubs, a few shops and other residential houses, it was obvious that it was mainly here to serve as a getaway from the rigidity of Hogwarts; essentially a place where students could kick back and relax.

Everything here was even designed for students. The shops mostly sold various types of stationary that a student would need, only Hog's Head Inn selling alcohol, and the other two places where one could get food – being the Three Broomsticks Inn and Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop – having mostly food and drinks meant for the underage crowd.

Well, Three Broomsticks did sell this thing called Butterbeer, that Ingvild was drinking as she walked alongside him.

"This is... soooo much better than regular beer. Even the crap Mephisto keeps in his fridge pales in comparison! You sure you don't want any?" Ingvild said. In all fairness, the Three Broomsticks did not actually have a 'to-go' option, but one charm spell later, Madam Rosmerta had given her the pitcher of butterbeer for free.

"Is that because you got that for free or because its genuinely better?" Harry asked. "And we should... you know, pay the woman. Though to be fair I have no clue if a couple of sickles is cheap or expensive..."

"Both. And pay her with what money?" Ingvild asked. "We have no cash and Azazel finally grew a brain and blocked the credit card that I had."

Harry was quite certain that this place did not accept regular credit cards, but did not press the issue. Ingvild was right, they did not have any of the local galleons, sickles or knuts. He could always conjure some gold/silver/bronze coins, but Harry was quite certain that they had means of telling that whether said coin was real or not. Perhaps serial numbers, or some mark or even a subtle magical signature.

The Devils for example, used a one of a kind magical signature on all their currency, so any counterfeits could easily be caught. Which in itself was mostly moot because of the heavy technomancy and digitalization in the Underworld, so unless you were buying something illegal, almost no one used physical currency.

The safer option was to just steal some rather than commit a counterfeiting crime.

But now the damage was done and Harry did not feel like going back to fix it.

"Okay, maybe ask the woman if she opens tabs next time?" Harry asked.

Ingvild shrugged. She took a large sip out of her pitcher. "You – burp – seriously don't want this?"

"No, I think I'm good," Harry said, completely unbothered by her burp. "I think I might get something from that sweet shop. Or at least I think it is, with a name like Honeyduke's. If we had money that is."

"Harry, you can smell the pastries, cakes, and the chocolate even though we're almost a few feet away, you don't need to guess."

"...I was going to say that," Harry said sheepishly. To be fair, his mind was on the girl beside him. Ingvild had dragged him here, claiming that Sapphire hogged him to herself. Then, she had claimed that this was a date, which he was completely unprepared for.

Harry had not even gone on a date with Sapphire.

Then, instead of what he assumed two people did on dates like these, such hold hands and sit down and get to know each other better and the like, they had just gone from shop to shop, place to place on this admittedly cool Saturday morning, with little to no physical or emotional contact between the two.

Harry tried to use his empathic abilities on her, only to realize that he was suddenly agreeing to whatever she said, even to her suggestion of teleporting to the Underworld later today.

It took him more time than he would admit to snap out and realize that her Sacred Gear was subtly hypnotizing him, possibly even without her realization.

For her part, Ingvild smiled as she saw Harry struggle with himself. Despite being half human, she was raised like a Devil, and her instincts, thoughts, and even morals were that of a Devil's.

She loved the fact that Harry was struggling about whether to simply steal the deliciously sweet food for himself, possibly putting the waitress he would need to place the charm or illusion on out of a job, or to ignore his own desire and simply move on. Her more dominant Devil nature wanted to corrupt that small piece of purity that Harry still had despite having spent so much time around a Devil of Mephisto's nature.

Ingvild was quite certain that little piece of 'purity' that he held was the entire reason why he never seemed to retaliate against anyone here. After the first leg of the tournament, most people here believed that he was actually lying about wandless magic.

While no one had directly confronted him, there were many who insulted and made fun of Harry behind his back, and they weren't particularly subtle about it either. Harry, for his part mostly laughed them off, not once disproving their notions whereas anyone else might have done so.

Especially someone who was raised by Mephisto. The Devil these days may have mellowed out, but there was a reason why no one from Hell bothered him. The general consensus with dealing with Mephisto was stay out of his way and he'll do the same.

After all, corrupting that which not even Mephisto could corrupt... just the thought was enough to send her on a power trip. She knew that she could just as easily 'win the battle' by nudging Harry along with her Sacred Gear, but that was no fun. He would snap out of it at any given moment, and it would quite honestly destroy whatever trust he had in her.

Ingvild could not have that. After all, as with all Devils, she was quite selfish. She wanted him for herself, at first purely because of Harry holding the Boosted Gear. After getting to know him a little, and especially realizing that she had an extreme attraction to him, she had changed her stance.

And she would label it as attraction as of now. Sure, it might be purely because of the way his Dragon nature pulled her towards him (emotionally speaking) or because of his physical attractiveness or even his performance in bed. But she did not truly know the man beside her.

Not like Sapphire knew him.

And Ingvild wasn't certainly held in the same regard as Sapphire by Harry. Sure, he respected her enough, was quite considerate, but at the same time, he was easily much more comfortable with Sapphire.

Ingvild didn't particularly like that. She personally had nothing against Sapphire. The Veela was an absolute delight to her. But once again, her Devil nature came up.

Devils were (in)famous for stealing things, be it valuables or people. While a large part of that may be stereotyping, but some of it was mired in truth. And Ingvild wanted to steal Harry from Sapphire.

More specifically, steal her spot as 'number one' from Harry's mind.

After all, she had no issues in being in a harem. It was quite common in the Underworld. Well, the supernatural world as a whole.

* * *

"Okay, we need to talk," Ingvild said out of the blue as Harry was chuckling to himself, reading an article in the _Daily Prophet,_ which was about him. They were sitting in a rather secluded area a few ways away from Hogsmeade.

"About what?" Harry said distractedly as he skimmed through the article, written by Rita Skeeter. She painted him as some attention seeking, no good entitled brat who had somehow cheated his way into the tournament.

If nothing else, he had to hand it to her; Rita Skeeter had a real talent in writing such pieces. Why, she did a fantastic job in portraying him as such. The wording of the article, the way she wrote about her 'sources' and even the way it was edited, was downright amazing.

If Harry didn't know any better, he too, would hate this person about whom she had written.

"Doesn't that bother you? She might as well call you a little piece of shit who everyone should spit on!" Ingvild stated, more than a bit miffed. No, she was downright furious!

Harry gave her an amused look. "Why would it? Despite the fact that most of this is pure hogwash, it is a very well written article."

Ingvild threw her arms up in anger. "Seriously?! If that was about me I would have destroyed this Skeeter woman!"

Harry could only laugh silently to himself, to her ever increasing exasperation. Ignoring the other kids' and students' comments was one thing but completely ignoring what a reporter essentially told the world about you? Ingvild could not wrap her head around that.

On the other hand, Harry could only think about how Ingvild looked very cute when angry. The way her eyes narrowed, her brows furrowed and her cheeks puffed up was downright adorable.

"Yeah, I could see your point," Harry said, smiling at her. "Prove to the world just how powerful I am, maybe by making an example out of this reporter. I could even place a curse on her, or even make her forget how to read and write, wipe her from the world in its entirety. However... why would I? I gain absolutely nothing substantial from it, apart from maybe a few seconds of satisfaction."

Ingvild narrowed her eyes as she looked at him, trying to understand that. "Really? It might, oh I don't know, improve your public image?!"

This time Harry gave her a confused look. "Why would I care about my public image with these mooks? I don't want them to fear me, love me, or even respect me. Once I get my money, we're gone from their world, probably forever. Starting needless fights with any of them seems like a massive waste of my magical energy."

Harry was quite serious about that too. Sure, he loved fighting. Sure, he loved destroying things. However, if he were to retaliate or even attack at what were basically verbal playground level of insults, it would not even be a fight.

Of course, if anyone attacked him first, all bets were off. But not a single one had done so. That itself had told Harry plenty. He was someone who believed in the weight of one's actions rather than words. No one had acted, which meant that they were either too scared or weak to act.

Ingvild was silent for a while, before she sighed. "I see. You think of them so little, hold them in such low regard that not even their opinion matters to you, huh? No matter if its a positive or negative one, you'll ignore them all the same. As the saying goes, a Dragon doesn't concern himself with the opinions of lesser beings."

Harry nodded. "A rather interesting way to put it, but that isn't untrue. So yes, let them hold on to their illusion of strength; I don't particularly care about proving myself to these idiots."

"But you don't seem to care about the effect it can have on us," Ingvild stated, her frown returning. "I have overheard a lot of insulting comments being thrown around about Sapphire and Lavinia, and some even about myself."

Harry was unperturbed. "And? What do you want me to do? Defend you? Even you all are more than capable of doing so?"

Ingvild shook her head. "No, I am simply saying that not all of us share a similar sentiment. And your inaction in this case, may cause you to look weak. And by extension, it makes me, er, us, look weak."

"Looking weak and being weak are two entirely different things," Harry stated. "One can be a rather amazing set up for the reveal that everyone was wrong about you, and the other... well, certain death should you go over your head."

Ingvild was still annoyed at that. "And what exactly are you going to reveal? Or when? You obviously don't care about proving yourself to them, neither do you want their approval."

"And you want their approval or respect or fear for what reason? Apart from a few there is hardly anyone here who is even worthy to be considered for a Pact Mage position if you're going for that, and even fewer who would make for good Pawns," Harry said calmly. "Not even the headmaster has enough power in him to justify any other place in a peerage."

"You do know that I don't have any Evil Pieces and because of the fact that I am a half Devil, and from the Leviathan line, no one is going to even give me any?" Ingvild was just as calm, but Harry did not need his empathy to note the anger in her tone.

Harry gave her a calculative look, before realization struck. "Ahh, I see. You don't care about what they say, you just want me to make them suffer for some reason."

Ingvild turned slightly red, refusing to meet his eyes. "N-No, absolutely not."

"Uh-huh, sure," Harry said, a teasing glint in his eyes. "I'm quite certain that your intentions come purely from the good in your heart, wanting not to see your friends in anguish and lash out against those that slighted you."

"Ugh! Ok fine. I do want to see them suffer! It is the Devil in me that has these urges! Happy now?" Ingvild said as she crossed her arms, turning her head to hide her face, which was red from embarrassment. She did not say that she wanted to see _him_ doing the deed, as it would prove that she had successfully corrupted him.

"Well..." Harry began, only to have Ingvild put her finger on his lips. Her head was still turned away from him, however.

"Don't answer that."

* * *

Draco Malfoy was quite happy.

The reason? He had gotten his hands on Harry Potter's wand. Apparently, the idiot had forgotten it in the infirmary after the First Task, and according to rumors, still had not decided to even look for it.

Draco had wanted to get back at Potter ever since he had embarrassed him that day, insinuating that he only made friends with the wrong sort. Then he was seen a few times with none other than Daphne Greengrass.

That had ticked Draco off even further.

Both of the Greengrass sisters were one of the most attractive girls in the school, and Draco was certain that his looks and wealth would attract at least one of the two, if not both. Sure, Pansy still pinned for him, but she lacked certain... _assets_... that Daphne had.

And Draco was quite sure that Astoria would have similar... _assets_... when she would be Daphne's age as well.

However Daphne had willingly met and had quite the talk with Harry Potter. Given her infuriated, yet confused look when she had walked in the Slytherin Dungeons, then went off to her room muttering something about 'Potter being insufferable' had told Draco everything.

She had tried to propose to the Boy-Who-Lived, yet had been rejected, rather obviously. Not that Draco could blame Potter; it was obvious that he was shagging that Veela, who was leagues above Daphne in every single department. Something Draco was completely not jealous of, no matter who might say otherwise.

It was, however, a matter of pride in the end. Daphne had never paid any attention to any boy in the school, even someone as rich and handsome as Draco. But the moment Harry Potter walks in, she goes after him like a hound sniffing some juicy meat.

It had annoyed him to no end.

Now, Draco held Harry's wand. Now Draco had all the power over Harry Potter. Who knows, now even his father will be quite pleased in him after he would destroy the Boy-Who-Lived, something not even the great Dark Lord could do.

And if Daphne were to see that, Draco was quite certain that she would be at the very least interested in him, if not outright fall for him. Who knows even that French Veela and Potter's own Veela may get interested in him as well!

All he had to do was challenge Harry Potter to a duel, and then defeat him in a single spell, which would be easily doable now that Draco held Harry's wand.

Now to find Harry Potter and then to humiliate him once and for all.

* * *

Harry sneezed into a quickly conjured handkerchief as he and Ingvild walked through the city of Gremory. Named after the very family who presided over this region of Hell, it was a sprawling city that was mostly divided into a busy downtown area and much quieter suburbs.

Hell itself was divided into seventy two 'countries' if you will, each governed by the Noble House that lived there. After the civil war that saw the rise of the current Satans, the lost Houses' lands were equally divided amongst the surviving Houses.

The interesting that was that the Gremory Manor wasn't actually located in this city, but was about thirty minute drive North-West from the city's downtown. Also, like every single Devil who lived here, apart from the mayor and a select few, Harry had never met anyone from the Gremory House. Irma had a few times, given that she was the head of the only medical school here.

"So here is where you grew up, huh?" Ingvild commented as Harry vanished the handkerchief.

"Well not exactly," Harry said, pointing to one of the buildings. It was a large apartment complex, with three buildings placed into a triangular pattern and a large park in between. "That building, the farthermost one. That is where Irma, Sapphire and I lived when we would come down here. We treated it like a vacation mostly. Sapphire lived here a lot longer than I did, mostly because my time in Hell was split between here and Tannin's Wastelands or whatever the hell he calls it."

"I have never been to this city... but I think I would have remembered most of Lilith."

"The Capital? We went there once, when we were seven. Nothing much present there apart from the government buildings and other boring stuff," Harry said. "So what did you want to do here anyways?"

"Mostly just see what all has been changed," Ingvild stated. "I may not look like it but I was actually born in the twenties...before I went into that sleeping state."

That surprised Harry. He knew that Devils aged very slowly post puberty, but that was honestly a shocker because Ingvild wasn't a full Devil. He had no idea that half Devils also aged that slowly. "Really?"

"Mmhm. When I fell into that sleep, my body and mind was placed into a stasis I think," Ingvild answered, feeling a bit embarrassed to reveal the correct reason: just wanting to spend time with Harry in a place she knew they won't be interrupted by anyone. "So physically and mentally speaking, I am still nineteen despite chronologically being almost a hundred years old."

"Cradle-robber," Harry said teasingly.

"Then does that make you a cougar hunter?" Ingvild asked with the same tone. "But... I also wanted to visit the Fallen Angel territory."

"You do know that requires a visa? And one that I do not have?" Harry asked.

Technically the Fallen Angel part of Hell was a dimension that was separate from the Devil side. But because once a large majority of Hell, seven of its nine dimensions (technically called Circles) once belonged to the Devils, tensions were quite high because Devils felt that Fallen Angels had stolen what was rightfully theirs.

Officially, the Fallen Angels had been granted that dimension after the Great War by the current Satan faction as a peace offering.

The last two Circles were where the various gods of Death tortured the evil human souls, and the deepest Circle, Cocytus. Once again, this was also a part of the Lucifer's job, but he had outsourced that part of the job to focus ruling the reminder of Hell.

The Fallen Angel side was also sealed off from the Devils' Circle using a lot of powerful seals and runes. Any teleportation into their side caused the spell to redirect to specific ports of entry, and without a visa, the teleportation would simply fail to work. The Devil Circle also worked similarly, but Harry was considered as a citizen because of being adopted by Irma, and due to Mephisto's influence.

"Eh, I am sure it will be fine. I have Azazel on speed dial."

"And you think he's going to help after you stole his credit card, possibly spending all of his money and then some, and finally not even checking in with him like we agreed to?" Harry asked.

"Check in with– oh, you mean that thing where I was supposed to tell him about my Sacred Gear or whatever?" Ingvild asked. Though she made it sound like she genuinely forgot, Harry knew better.

"Yeah. That," Harry replied. "And try it if you are so sure."

Ingvild nodded and took out her phone, and called the Fallen Angel Governor.

Harry could only laugh as Ingvild was yelled at over the phone. To her surprise and (sort of) relief, Azazel had not discovered that it was her who was using his credit card, and she only got yelled at for not following through with their deal.

Ingvild was a bit miffed that he didn't give her a visa, however.

* * *

Sapphire was exasperated. She lacked the nigh infinite patience that Harry had when dealing with people who thought poorly of him.

And it wasn't as if they were clever insults or even subtle insults. Seriously, what even was a 'mudblood'? And whoever thought that 'these people are such cheats that they would have trouble with first year spells' was a clever insult?

The main problem was with Lavinia, who was beside her. The poor girl was losing more confidence in herself because of the comments, which was a huge problem. Sapphire knew that she needed to fix that as soon as possible.

As they walked towards the Great Hall for lunch, Sapphire remembered the first time they met Lavinia, who was quite assertive and confident. But because she constantly compared herself to Harry and Sapphire, and now even Ingvild, she developed an inferiority complex.

Now she just needed a way to make Lavinia believe in hers–

"Oi, Veela, where's Potter?"

Sapphire and Lavinia turned around to see that snobby blonde boy, who's name she could not remember, looking at them with a haughty expression.

He was flanked by two burly, large boys who had a dumb look on their face.

"He's out, umm, uhh..." Sapphire said after trying and failing to recall his name.

The blonde scowled. "My name is Draco Malfoy! And tell Potter to meet me on the fourth floor!"

"Right. And why would Harry want to meet you?" Sapphire was genuinely curious about that. She wondered if this was in direct relation to that downright insulting and blasphemous article by that Skater woman. Or was it Skewter?

This time the blonde boy smirked, his haughty and 'holier than thou' look returning. "Why, I wish to challenge him to a duel! To finally prove that I am, in fact, much more powerful than he could ever hope to be!"

Sapphire gave out an angered sigh. She could see that a crowd was forming, so simply ignoring and moving on may not be an option. Then an idea entered her mind. Yes, that should work.

"You wish to have a duel?" Sapphire said, but the thing she said next was also directed at the audience. "Huh, I wish Harry was actually here. Out of all the things you all have claimed us to be and the insults behind our backs, that one declaration of a duel might have actually offended him. Or who knows, he would've laughed you off at best and put you in an illusion to fulfil this fantasy of yours at worst."

Sapphire paused for effect. "But... I am not as merciful. You see, had you not bothered me, you would have escaped with your dignity. Now? You will have your duel, but with Lavinia here."

"Wha-? ME?" Lavinia yelled. "B-But why me?"

"Relax, Lavinia. You'll win even without breaking a sweat." Sapphire assured her.

Draco scowled angrily, sneering at them. "Why would I want to duel this mudblood?"

"What's the matter? Scared of losing to a girl who began her education in magic but a few months ago?" Sapphire questioned.

"Sapphire!" Lavinia tried to reason with her.

"Hush dear, I'm trash talking for you," Sapphire responded.

Draco humph'd. "Please! I am a Malfoy! We are not scared of anything!"

"Then its settled?" Sapphire questioned with a smirk.

"Not yet. We need to go over the terms of this duel. Should I win, the two of you will bow down to me! And do whatever I tell you to!" Draco said.

"Deal!" Sapphire said without missing a beat, to Lavinia's dismay.

Draco had mixed feelings about duelling a mudblood. On one hand, she most likely still had her wand and would fight back. On the other, she was a weak little mudblood, and by the Veela's own admission, had begun her education a few months ago.

And, should he win, then he would have a Veela and a mudblood under him, and the law did not recognize a Veela as human, so he could essentially enslave her and no one could stop him. He would still keep the mudblood, and if he paid her a knut per month, he couldn't be persecuted for owning another human.

"Wait! What happens if we win?" Lavinia asked just as Sapphire was leading her away.

"Then this blonde douchebag stops bothering us!" Sapphire said, without looking at Draco.

Draco smirked. He had no doubts that he would win, but he had nothing to lose if he didn't. Of course, he was going to make the Veela beg for mercy after he won for calling him a douchebag.

Whatever that was.

* * *

Lavinia was nervous as she paced around on the Fourth Floor. Turns out that said Floor had a duelling ring that was not used for a few years according to some students. The last time was some duelling club that was established by a teacher who was fired after it was discovered that his books about his exploits and claims about being an expert in dealing with many evil beings was fraudulent.

The fact that they had a rather large audience did not help her any. Apparently word had spread very quickly about this duel. It made her wonder if any other conflicts were solved this way; through just fighting it out to assert your own superiority.

It seemed a bit barbaric if it was true, according to her.

"Relax," Sapphire said, breaking Lavinia out of her thoughts. "Remember, even without your Sacred Gear, you are more than powerful for him."

"But... this school is supposed to be really good right? What if he uses some spell or magic that I cannot counter?"

"Yes. It may be," Sapphire said with a kind smile. "But believe in yourself above all else. And if he does use a spell that you don't know how to counter, just freeze it. You can use your Sacred Gear without manifesting it, right?"

"For a short amount of time, yes," Lavinia answered.

"That's all you need. One good hit. And you better prepare yourself. Your opponent has arrived."

Lavinia looked at the other end of the room, and sure enough, Draco Malfoy had arrived.

Along with him was another tall man, wearing black robes. He had greasy hair, and a hook shaped nose. He seemed to look at everyone and everything as though he hated everyone and everything.

"I have brought Professor Snape to ensure that there would be no cheating," Draco said as he stepped on to the arena proper. Lavinia did the same.

"I am certain that they can figure it out themselves Mr. Malfoy," said the greasy haired professor as his eyes fixed on Lavinia. "I want a clean duel. There will be no usage of any lethal spells."

Lavinia gulped at that. She wanted to freeze Draco as soon as the match started, but was certain that it would be counted as a lethal spell.

She looked back at Sapphire, who smiled in assurance and nodded, giving her a thumbs up.

Lavinia took a breath to steady herself.

"I am sure that... outsiders may not be aware of our traditions," the professor said. "Both of you will bow, take twenty steps back, and then begin the duel."

Draco smirked, knowing just how nervous Lavinia was the two of them bowed at each other. He was a bit confused that he couldn't see her wand, but was not going to remind her of that. The mudblood must be more stupid than he thought if she forgot her wand to a duel.

The moment they finished taking twenty steps, the duel was interrupted before a single spell could be thrown.

"What is happening here?"

That voice made Draco falter a bit.

Dumbledore had entered the room. Around them, all chatter came to a sudden silence at the headmaster's presence.

Luckily, Snape moved to his rescue. "Mr. Malfoy challenged the outsiders to a duel, Headmaster. I am here to ensure that the duel goes smoothly and there is no cheating."

"I see," said the headmaster as he turned to Sapphire. "And may I enquire why you agreed?"

Sapphire was not surprised in the slightest that Dumbledore had known it was her who agreed and not Lavinia. "Mostly about sending a message."

"There area far more peaceful ways," Dumbledore said, looking at her with a disappointed expression.

"I am aware. But the other party wants to resort to duels. We merely responded in kind." Sapphire answered without missing a beat.

Dumbledore was silent for a while. "If that is what you wish, I will not stand in your way. But instead of Severus, I shall preside over this duel." He looked at Draco this time, knowingly. "To ensure that the duel goes cleanly without any long lasting injuries."

Draco cursed. He and Snape had made a deal of sorts. It was a contingency more than anything; in case the mudblood won, Snape would make something up and declare her a cheater. Thus, he would win regardless.

But Dumbledore's presence was a problem.

Snape himself was silent for a while. "If that is your wish, headmaster." He said. He knew that there was no way that he could convince Dumbledore otherwise. No doubt the old headmaster had made a guess about Draco's less than pure intentions.

He was annoyingly observant like that.

"Without any further ado, begin." Dumbledore said.

Draco pointed his wand at Lavinia, smirking to see that she still had not brought out her own wand. He had first planned to use a borderline illegal spell – the blood boiling curse – to win instantly. But with Dumbledore here, he knew that he could not use it.

Draco instead opted for a simple _stupefy_ , but he made sure to overpower it to cause enou–

A large gust of wind rammed into Draco, making him fly out of the ring even before he could utter the first syllable of _stupefy_. It was powerful enough that he had been knocked unconscious the moment it hit him.

His limp body fell a good ten feet behind the arena. Lavinia's determined face was the last thing he saw.

Snape, Dumbledore and the rest of the audience stared unbelievingly at Lavinia, who looked at them. She lowered her outstretched palm, her determined expression turning into an embarrassed one.

"Oops?" was all she said.

Given the way Draco had wanted to _duel Harry_ , Lavinia had genuinely believed he was that powerful. It was the same spell that had destroyed that wall in their living quarters a few days ago, and Harry could easily withstand that spell. So she had empowered it a little bit further to 'test the waters' so to speak.

She had no idea that Draco would be that... that... _weak._

Sapphire shook her head in amusement at Lavinia as Dumbledore declared her the winner. Snape wordlessly took Draco to the infirmary.

' _Wait till Harry hears about this!'_

The audience then suddenly broke out into applause at Lavinia's victory.


	10. Chapter 10

Ingvild watched in fascination as the large Dragon, covered in purple scales, and Harry duke it out in the large open wastelands. She was actually watching from afar, so as to not get caught up in the battle.

Given that they could not visit the Fallen Angel side of hell, Harry had decided to take the opportunity to visit Tannin.

Tannin had promptly attacked Harry when they had arrived in his territory.

Well, Harry should not have woken Tannin up from his slumber by calling him an 'old withered up lizard' and then kicking him in the ass, literally, either, but that was besides the point.

Harry, with a grin on his face, avoided a fire breath as he went in for a head on attack on Tannin's head. Tannin responded by simply swatting Harry away as though he were a fly.

Harry recovered in mid-air, the green gem on the Boosted Gear glowing as his powers were doubled as a result. While Ingvild was using magic to enhance her sight to watch the battle, she had not bothered to count as to how many times Harry had used the Boosted Gear to enhance himself. He rushed in again, hoping to attack the head again. Tannin brought up his arms to grab Harry as he rushed at him.

A bright red energy erupted from Harry, taking the form of two tendrils as they swatted Tannin's arms aside. Another tendril of magic struck Tannin squarely in the chest, but to his credit, the dragon didn't even notice the blow.

"WEAK!" Tannin bellowed loudly as he broke the red aura Harry was covered in with ease, grabbing on to Harry's body. The force from said grabbing would have turned boulders to dust, but Harry was mostly inconvenienced by it.

"GOTCHA!" Harry yelled back, releasing the stored up energy in the Boosted Gear.

"EXPLOSION!" Ddraig bellowed from the Sacred Gear, as the energy was directed straight towards Tannin. The entire area around them exploded, kicking up a large dust cloud in the air. Cracks appeared across the ground as said explosion happened.

Even Ingvild had to root herself to the ground as the shockwave threatened to send her flying.

Neither Harry nor Tannin waited for the dust to settle as the Dragon, seemingly unharmed from the explosion, breathed a large stream of fire at where he could sense Harry to be. Harry flew up to avoid the fire, raising his hands to gather up a large amount of energy.

Tannin's eyes widened as he saw the large red ball form in Harry's hands.

He could not dodge in time as Harry slammed the ball of pure energy into Tannin's head. The force from the attack sent Tannin sprawling to the ground. Harry quickly rushed in, intending to end the fight. He surrounded himself in the red magical energy once again, this time the energy taking the shape of a large Dragon as he slammed into Tannin.

Or he would have, had Tannin not used his immense strength to grab Harry through the red aura that he was surrounded in, before slamming Harry into the ground.

Ingvild, from her viewing area, flinched as Harry was slammed into the ground, kicking up another dust cloud. It looked like the fight was over.

* * *

Tannin laughed loudly as he sat down with Harry and Ingvild, chomping on a roasted goat leg. They were sitting in a cave, which was surprisingly fully furnished with rooms, beds, tables, even computers. Of course, most of it was for a size of a large Dragon like Tannin.

Fortunately Tannin could manipulate his size and even the size of his furniture to suit that of his visitors, so everything was human sized as of now.

"Ha ha laugh it up," Harry muttered. He was covered in cuts and bruises as a result of being slammed into the ground by the Dragon.

"Can't help it! Its too funny! You actually thought that would work?! I literally tore apart your Red Dragonic Aura the first time you tried!"

Ingvild, who was eating her own share of goat, looked at Harry. It was not too good, but she was afraid of offending a _Dragon King._ "Please tell me that is not what you actually call it..."

Harry grunted, taking a large bite from the goat. He was mostly used to Tannin's cooking.

"So... you are a Leviathan, huh?" Tannin said, addressing Ingvild.

"Yeah. What of it?" Ingvild replied, her tone even.

"Hmph. Not from that annoyance that is Katarea. You don't smell remotely like her. That would only leave that other slut Tsufaame." Tannin said as he stared down Ingvild.

"I actually don't know which Leviathan is my ancestor," Ingvild said.

"She also has Neried Kyrie, so I would be careful of doing or saying anything offensive," Harry said with a smug grin.

Tannin simply grunted. "Do not confuse me with this weak minded fool, girl. You are a hundred years too young to control a Dragon like me."

"More like, 'you are too young for me; I only go for old hags who can match my advancing age'," Harry said. "After all, I can no longer keep it up any more, becaus–"

Harry never got to finish his sentence as he was slammed into the wall behind him, courtesy of Tannin's tail. He grunted, the goat leg falling beside him as he fell to the ground.

"Oi, Ddraig," Tannin said with a growl. "Tell your host to shut it or you will have to find a new one."

" **If I could shut him up at will I would have done so a long time ago,"** Ddraig replied from Harry's arm.

"You can silence me but you can't silence the truth!" Harry managed to say before the tail slammed him through the wall.

Ingvild giggled to herself. She could tell that Tannin was not even hurting Harry, and Harry just loved to tease Tannin to no end.

Harry stood up and walked back to the place where they were sitting, repairing the hole in the wall behind him as he walked through.

"So is this how you two always are?" Ingvild questioned.

"Eh, more or less. I beat the shit out of him, he tries to annoy me further," Tannin answered. "But he is too much of an idiot to realize that if I really got angry I would absolutely kill him."

"And you are too old to realize that I just need to draw the fight enough till you get an exhaustion induced heart attack," Harry quipped.

"...I regret letting you meet Bova," Tannin muttered.

"And I regret asking for this goat leg because you obviously don't know how to cook," Harry said. He knew Tannin's cooking too well: just dump whatever spices Tannin could find in his home on a raw piece of meat before roasting it with his own fire.

But watching Ingvild struggle to eat it and not say a thing so as to not anger Tannin was very fun to watch.

Tannin chose not to answer for once, turning his attention to Ingvild. "So, why is a beautiful girl like you with this clown anyways? Sapphire I can understand; she was doomed the moment Irma took her in. Or are you with him because of Ddraig? That I can understand."

" **I say all of his loved ones are with him because of me,"** Ddraig said with a smug tone.

"And now I am using my left arm to jerk off tonight," Harry said.

" **Please don't..."**

"And TMI brat," Tannin growled.

"He may be a clown, but at least he is a handsome clown," Ingvild said, giving Harry a teasing grin. Harry threw a betrayed look at her, but she ignored him. "And he can satisfy me in certain ways, so there's that."

"Glad to know I'm loved," Harry muttered.

Tannin simply laughed. "Now if you are done eating, I'm afraid my free time is at an end. Nice meeting you, Ingvild Leviathan. And fuck off, Harry."

Ingvild smiled at the Dragon as she stood up with Harry. "Nice to meet you too, Lord Tannin."

"Yeah, yeah, fuck you too," Harry said, flipping Tannin off. "Withered old lizard."

"Annoying brat," Tannin replied with his own middle finger.

The two of them laughed at each other as Harry and Ingvild left.

"So... what does he do anyways?" Ingvild asked as she and Harry appeared back in Hogsmeade. It was night, so most of the streets were empty, with the moon shining bright.

"Runs a YouTube channel," Harry said.

"Really?" Ingvild asked sarcastically, giving him a deadpan look. "How many subscribers does he have?"

Harry pulled out his phone, looking it up. "Lets see... about 430k."

Ingvild's eyes widened in surprise. She had been completely sarcastic when she asked him that. "Seriously?! Lemme see!"

Harry gave her the phone, and surely enough, there was a channel named 'TanninPlays' with 430k subscribers as Harry said. Curious to know more, she pulled up a video.

" _Wha_ _ddu_ _p Dragon Squad! Its_ _y_ _a boi Tannin here! Welcome to another_ _Minecraft Lets Play! Before we begin, don't forget to like, comment and subscribe to my channel, it really helps me out! And now, a word from our sponsor today, Raid Sha–_ "

At that point Ingvild closed the video out of sheer cringe. She looked at Harry with an incredulous look. "He- He uses a face cam. _In his dragon form._ How? How _the actual hell_ do they not realize?!"

"Most people just assume that he is just a very advanced V-tuber model," Harry said. "He even has a Raptreon and everything."

Of course, a lot of Devil higher ups had raised a huge fuss about it, but what could they do? Tannin's power was only matched by the Satans, who had gone on record to say that they should be focusing on more important things.

The last thing they needed was an angered Dragon King rampaging throughout Hell because his channel was banned as a result of their actions. It also kept him busy and not participate in any Rating Games as of late, for which the top players were quite thankful for.

The only reason Tannin lost a Rating Game was when said Rating Game was fixed.

"And its soooo baaaad!" Ingvild moaned.

"You should see the Tannin/Coco fanfics," Harry muttered as they began to walk towards the Hogwarts Castle.

"...Who?" Ingvild asked.

"Boy am I glad you asked!" Harry said happily. "Time for you to fall down the hole!"

Harry was quite glad that the walk to the Castle was so long. And in his decision to teleport to Hogsmeade instead of Hogwarts.

Ingvild, for her part, regretted asking about it in the first place.

* * *

"...and then I just used a single spell and he was out!" Lavinia finished recounting the duel with Draco to Harry and Ingvild. Sapphire just nodded along.

Ingvild had her head in the phone, earphones in her ears as she could not help but put another clip of Tannin that popped up in her feed. Now for some reason she could not stop watching as a viewer tricked the old dragon in placing a bed in the nether.

Harry was extremely amused at Lavinia's story. If nothing else, it just reinforced in his belief that the people here weren't a threat and he need not take them seriously. Maybe Ingvild would now get off his back about it.

"And now so many guys are asking me to be their date to this Yule Ball!" Lavinia said, a bit embarrassed. She was getting a lot of attention now, something that she wasn't used to. She had declined all of them, hoping that she did so politely. The last thing she wanted was for someone to outright hate her because she refused to be their date for a Ball.

"The what?" Harry asked. He hadn't exactly heard of the Yule Ball, on the account that he wasn't in Hogwarts when it was announced.

"Yeah, it was announced when the two of you were in the Underworld," Sapphire informed them. "It is mandatory for all Tournament participants."

"That's bullshit!" Harry said. The last thing he wanted was to attend something stuffy and formal like a Ball. If it was some rave party, he would reconsider. At least raves had some amazing music and it was always fun to watch people get drunker/higher as the time went on and on. His partial dragonification prevented him from being drunk or high unless the concentration was high enough.

"Well that is what that old lady professor said," Sapphire said. "So who are you taking as your date?"

"And what happens if I don't attend? Do I lose points?" Harry said. He wanted to win, so obviously losing points was a big no-no.

"She did not say. I think she just assumed that you would agree," Sapphire said. She was well aware that Harry would not like it. However at the same time she wanted to dress up and look pretty, well prettier, for him and dance the night away.

Like they do in romantic movies and books. That, it was not everyday she got to wear formal dresses, ball gowns or anything of the sort.

But Harry was not a fan of anything that was formal, or in his own words, 'stuffy'. Unlike Sapphire who looked forward to such events, and loved dressing up if the situation called for it, Harry hated to put on even a semi formal shirt.

"Looks like I am going to have a talk with this professor tomorrow," Harry said.

"Or you could suck it up and attend?" Sapphire suggested.

Harry shook his head. "The only way I am attending any formal event is if I am taken there against my will."

"That was a little dramatic," Lavinia muttered.

"Who knows? It may not even be a formal event," Sapphire said. "It may just have a formal name."

"You want to go that badly, huh?" Harry asked her after a while.

Sapphire blushed a bit, but did not deny it.

Harry sighed. "I could always just use an illusion to make it appear that I am wearing a formal suit," he mused.

"No, you are wearing a suit and you will like it." Sapphire said firmly.

"Now you are asking for too much," Harry said.

Lavinia looked back and forth between the two as she realized that an argument was probably inevitable.

"How am I asking for too much? You just have to wear something formal for a few hours!" Sapphire said. "Besides, I bet you would look amazing in a suit!"

"Suits are restrictive!" Harry shot back.

Seeing that the two were going to argue, Lavinia simply stood up and walked back into her room. Ingvild was too enthralled in the YouTube videos she was watching.

* * *

Harry stopped in the hallways, feeling the high amount of anger and malice directed at him. He was trying to find that 'old lady professor' as Sapphire had put it, to know more about the Yule Ball. He had purposely left Sapphire behind; he did not want her to stop him from talking his way out.

"That is a high amount of negativity you are putting out... and we have only interacted once," Harry siad as a greasy haired man, with a hooked nose, and wearing black robes approached him.

Severus Snape simply sneered at him in response. He had seen, first hand, at what the youngest one amongst Harry Potter's... classmates? Teammates? He did not what they were, but he had seen what that girl could do.

Complete wandless, silent casting.

He now knew why Dumbledore was so cautious around them. Not even the Dark Lord was capable of such a feat, and Snape knew full well what the Dark Lord could and could not do. As much as he hated to admit, the Potter brat and his cohorts were powerful.

The fact that he had felt Snape's hatred and malice towards him did not surprise Snape in the slightest. But how could he _not_ hate him? That was the face of his tormentor, with the eyes of the woman he loved. Harry Potter was a constant reminder that he lost Lily to James Potter.

"The Headmaster wishes to talk to you," Snape said simply, and turned around, not wanting to talk to him any further.

"That is all good and all... but seriously. You can always hate me, perhaps you hated my parents. People tend to hate the innocent child for the sins of their parents after all. But... that does not explain the undertones of jealousy," Harry said, catching up to the man.

"Jealous?" Snape could not help but say, incredulously. "Why would I be jealous of an arrogant Potter?"

"Ah, so it _is_ related to my parents," Harry said. "Maybe my father more than my mother."

This time Snape did not rise to the comment. "The Headmaster does not like to be kept waiting," He said simply, knowing that if he were to say anything, Harry would pick up on it and press further.

"Spoilsport," Harry said as he let Snape leave. He sighed to himself. Oh well, that old headmaster was a judge; he would know much more about this Ball than the professor.

* * *

Albus Dumbledore did not have to wait long before Harry appeared at his door. With a simple thought, the door swung open, and the young boy walked in.

"You called for me?" Harry asked.

"Yes," Albus said as he picked up the Invisibility Cloak that was lying on his desk and gave it to Harry. "This belonged to your father. He left it in my hands for safekeeping. With so many things going on, it just slipped my mind to return it."

Harry shrugged as he took the Cloak. While such a Cloak would have its uses, it was not so useful to someone like Harry. "An Invisibility Cloak?" Harry asked.

"Indeed," Dumbledore said, debating with himself whether he should tell Harry that it was not just any Invisibility Cloak, but a Deathly Hallow. In the end, he decided against it. Even if the story behind the Hallows had a sliver of truth to them and these items were enchanted by the entity of Death, he could not let someone like Mephisto know that Dumbledore knew about them.

While giving the Invisibility Cloak to Harry may be counter-intuitive to that argument, holding on to the Cloak also seemed wrong to the old Headmaster. It was never his to begin with, and the last thing he wanted was Harry accusing him of theft if he ever found out that Dumbledore had it for all these years.

"Had you originally come to Hogwarts when you were eleven, I would have given it back to you then," Dumbledore said, breaking the awkward silence.

"You were going to give an eleven year old a cloak that turned them invisible?" Harry asked. "In a castle that is surrounded by forests that have Centaurs and man eating spiders and other things that would happily kill a human child?"

"I was going to place a tracking charm on it," Dumbledore answered.

"Oh good, that way at least you would know exactly where my body is when anyone of that kills me," Harry muttered.

"You would have gone into the Forbidden Forest at eleven?" Dumbledore asked.

"Hey look. Eleven year old Harry was an idiot. Not saying that the current me is a genius, but still," Harry said as he neatly folded the Cloak and shrunk it enough to fit it in his pocket. "By the way what is up with that grease ball you sent to call for me?"

Dumbledore sighed. "The grease ball, as you put it, is our Professor Severus Snape. He teaches Potions. I presume you felt the hostility he had to towards you."

Harry nodded.

"That hostility runs deep, I'm afraid. You see, he was bullied relentlessly by your father. And he was in love with your mother. By the time they got together, he had even lost the trust of your mother. You see why he would hate you?"

"Kind of," Harry said. "A very shallow reason, but understandable in a sense."

"To you, perhaps it does come across as shallow. But I suspect he still loves Lily," Dumbledore said.

"Well whatever," Harry said, not wanting to continue this conversation any further. He had no interest in his parents' apparent love triangle with the Potions Professor. "Just one last thing. Is this Yule Ball mandatory for all Champions? As in will I lose points if I do not show up?"

Harry put his empathy in full force as he asked this, to sense if the old Headmaster would lie.

"It is in a traditional sense," Dumbledore said. "A Champion is expected to dance with a partner, as a part of the opening dance. Every single time the Tri-Wizard Tournament is held, it has been this way."

"Oh good I won't lost points if I don't bother to show up," Harry said, a smile forming on his lips.

"But it is expected of you," Dumbledore said.

"I am quite sure that it is also expected that a Tri-Wizard Tournament would have three participants, but we have four. If anything, the opening of the Ball is _traditionally_ meant for three couples dancing, so you have that covered," Harry replied.

"I see that I cannot change your mind about this," Dumbledore muttered.

Harry simply nodded, saying a quick goodbye as he left the office. Well, at this point only one person could, and Sapphire was trying really hard anyways.

* * *

Mephisto woke up with large headache.

"Ugh..." Was all he could say. The house was in complete disarray, and the smell of booze and sex was quite high. With a snap of his fingers, the hangover was gone. With another gesture, everything in the house fixed itself, going back as if no orgy party had ever happened.

At least all the participants and guests had left. Or were dead. It had only happened once, but if Mephisto remembered correctly, that was a very wild party with regular humans who thought they were participating in a Satanic ritual. Which involved ritual sacrifice and mutilation.

It had even scarred Mephisto, and was a part of the reason why he never accepted any Contracts any more. Humans could be very disturbing when they wanted to be.

He could only hope that he did not do anything bad last night. His hopes were dashed as he picked up the newspapers.

Mephisto had a subscription for all the local tabloids, both magical and non magical, along with the official newspaper of the German Magical Government. Of course, the headline was in German.

_**The Ministry Denies All Accusations of Dumping Potions in the Rhine That Turn the Unicorns Gay** _

_An unidentified man claims that the Ministry has been doing this for centuries, which apparently explains the low population and birthrate of unicorns._

Mephisto knew it was a huge problem when the official newspaper reported that. Well at least they could not pin that one on him as none of the newspapers had a description of him, nor had they named him.

"HEYOOO!"

Mephisto jumped, to see a small twin tailed black cat standing in front of him.

"Really? They just let you go?" Mephisto asked with a raised brow. Kuroka shrugged as she transformed into her humanoid form.

"Well..." Kuroka said, recounting what had happened when her trial had come up in front of the Devils' Supreme Court. Her case had to be passed up from the local courts in the Flauros Territory, all the way up to Lilith. It had taken a lot of time and effort, even though Ajuka Beelzebub himself had apparently sponsored her lawyer.

" _Hold on a second," said Lord Bael. "She killed Hektor Flauros? I mean, I thought she was responsible for the Mammon disaster?"_

" _No, that was someone else... she was even executed last month for that," Sirzechs Lucifer said as he rubbed his forehead as he read through Kuroka's file, wondering what to do. He knew full well that this was the older sister of his sister's Rook. Now that he knew the full story, it was quite clear why she killed her King._

_And he could not blame her for it. If anyone even tried to think about what Hektor planned to do to Rias, he would level the whole Underworld if it came to that._

" _I thought she offed some minor King..." said Lord Phenex as he read through his copy of the file._

" _Regardless," Sirzechs tried to say, before Zekram Bael spoke up. The Baels were the only house to have two seats in the court, and that was entirely because of Zekram's influence._

" _Hmph. This is quite the predicament. Indeed, who won that bet?"_

" _No one, Lord Zekram," answered Lady Paimon. "No one bet that his own peerage member would kill him."_

" _...So who the fuck wins the three hundred million credit pot?!"_

_Sirzechs slammed his head in exasparation on the desk as the chamber descended into chaos and arguments._

_Kuroka and her lawyer sat in their designated spots, wondering how this even happened._

"...in the end they just resolved the money issue, which was evenly split amongst everyone who bet and let me go," Kuroka said with a triumphant grin. "Well, they did place me in probation, and all my movements are tracked for the moment, but otherwise I am free to go! Even met up with my sister and spent a lot of quality time before I decided to come here!"

Mephisto huffed. He was not too surprised that the higher ups had a very little idea of that case. They were all concerned with themselves, and no one liked Hektor Flauros. "Everyday... I am reminded why I left Hell..."

"So... where is everybody?" Kuroka asked, looking around.

"In Hogwarts," Mephisto answered. "Harry entered in a Tournament or whatever. Anyways, if you want to go there, its in Scotland. I am quite sure that you will find it if you can just close in on your bond with Harry."

"Okay!" Kuroka said cheerfully as she vanished from the spot.

Mephisto shook his head as he sat down on his sofa, turning on the TV, tuning in to one of the Fallen Angel drama channels. They had some amazing drama shows, and were a great time to just relax. At least there would be no more–

" _We interrupt your daily episode of_ Fallin' for Fallen _for this emergency broadcast," said the young female presenter. "Lord Azazel has summoned the Devil Mephisto Pheles to the Grigory Court, stating that the Devil has been using his own money to purchase highly expensive sex-toys, that, and we quote, 'made sleeping and sitting down super difficult because my ass has been tore a new one!' end quote. Lord Azazel has also asked us to say this, and I quote, 'I know you watch this show you Devil bastard, and I want my money back! I wish you would stop ignoring all my calls and E-mails so I don't have to do this again!' end quote. We now go back to your daily episode of_ Fallin' for Fallen. _"_

"Well...Fuck."


	11. Chapter 11

Harry had a particularly annoyed look as Sapphire won the argument of attending the Yule Ball. Perhaps he should not have bet how long would it take for her to... _convince_ him.

So here he was, standing with her just outside the Ball Room, waiting for the damned thing to start.

The only saving grace was that Sapphire looked down right gorgeous in the silver and blue ball gown she was dressed in, along with her hair done in a neat pony tail. She wore a light amount of make-up, which further accentuated her naturally good looks. Fortunately for Sapphire, she had remembered to wear her runes that suppressed her Veela Allure, which apparently that French Veela had not.

Sapphire chuckled to herself, it seemed that the other Veela was unaware of such runes. Then she turned her attention back to Harry, a small frown forming on her face. To everyone else, he was wearing a black suit, bow tie and everything. Even his hair was done properly. No doubt he looked extremely handsome and dashing. But to her, as a result of training herself to always ignore Harry's illusions due to the amount of times he would mess with her, she saw what he was actually wearing.

A simple grey t-shirt and pyjamas, his hair a mess as it always was, and the slightest hint of tiredness in his eyes. His shoulders were slumped as he stood there lazily, no doubt waiting for the moment they would go back to their room.

Well, that tiredness was partly her fault.

But he did leave her quite sore in return, and Sapphire could only thank her skills in healing magic otherwise she would not be standing straight either. While Harry was a very comfortable size, her ass was tighter than they both expected.

Sapphire was brought out of her thoughts when that old lady professor appeared. "Mr. Potter? The headmaster informed me that you would not be attending the Yule Ball?"

The question stirred some whispers amongst the people that had shown up, more accurately the competitors, their dates, and the remaining Professors. There were a few other students as well, but the bulk had yet to arrive.

Harry shrugged. "My date and I talked about it for great lengths... before she won the bet."

"I see," Professor McGonagal said simply, not wanting to press the issue. "Well. We're pleased to have you here nonetheless. I must say, you do clean yourself up much better than your father. That is a very nice suit, even if it is rather muggle."

Sapphire frowned as Harry smiled at the praise. "Why, thank you!"

Of course the professor could not see through the illusion. Well, Harry did keep in mind that he would need to fool the entire population of the school, so the illusion had to be adjusted accordingly. With his Boosted Gear, all he had to do was to boost the effectiveness of the illusion.

It had even fooled Ingvild and Lavinia, who were here as each other's date. Poor Lavinia was hounded by so many guys and the occasional girl.. but she had rejected them all. But you could not attend the Ball without a date, so in the end Lavinia had to ask Ingvild if she was interested to go as friends.

"Okay, I assume that you all know the order," McGonagal said, looking at the four champions and their dates. "But given that Mr. Potter has decided to attend at the last second, he will be going second, right after Mr. Krum. Mr. Diggory and Ms. Delacour will follow him after."

As if on cue, the music began to play, and Krum led his date, Hermione Granger into the Ball Room.

Half a minute went by when McGonagal gestured for Harry and Sapphire to follow.

Sapphire was giddy as she danced with Harry, regardless of the fact that they were both very mediocre at it. Even Harry's bored look did not wipe off her happiness entirely. The rest of the world disappeared for her as Harry held her close, leading the dance. It felt wonde–

"What did you do?" Sapphire asked as she felt Harry's magic rise and fall back to normal momentarily, the telltale sign that he had just cast a spell.

Harry smiled at her as he cast a few more spells, "Don't worry about it."

"Harry... what. Did. You. Do?"

"Its a surprise!" Harry said with a grin.

* * *

Dumbledore looked at all the guests and patrons in the Ball Room with concern. It had been an hour since the Ball began, and everyone seemed to be getting more and more drunk as the time went on. Why, Madam Maxime and Hagrid had already disappeared from the Ball, and Dumbledore did not want to think anymore on that.

"Albus," Minerva said as she rushed over to him. "I checked the fruit punch three times. It is the regular fruit punch. Even the butterbeer is normal, and so is the pumpkin juice. None of the drinks are out of ordinary!"

Dumbledore scratched his beard. "Then how is everyone getting drunk?"

* * *

Harry chuckled as Sapphire glared at him. "I don't believe this! I thought one time you said you would not do anything!"

He had seen the professors check literally every single drink in the room to see if anyone had spiked it.

Well, almost all of the drinks.

Not a single person had actually checked the water. And why would they? Unlike the other drinks that were being served, the water was in large barrels, that were pre-filled and then sealed, and the only way to get water out was out of the taps at the base.

A complicated transfiguration spell, but it was worth it.

Of course, no one was drinking water.

They had been drinking tequila the entire time. The only difference being that Harry had to hide the taste and that burning sensation that alcohol produced as it went down the throat, which was once again, achievable with magic.

Then, a room wide compulsion spell to make everyone drink at least three full glasses of the tequila. While it would be problematic, magic made it hard to get drunk to begin with, and all effects of alcohol poisoning, no matter how severe, were fixable with a potion or two.

Of course, as only the taste of the tequila was hidden, and not the effects, all the younger crowd got rowdier and rowdier. Even the older ones who could not hold their alcohol were joined in, and everyone was just making more and more noise and chaos.

There was large gasp from the crowd that drew everyone's attention, which made Harry laugh and Sapphire to glare at him.

Fleur Delacour, the French Champion (and amongst the sober population, thanks to her part-Veela physiology) was immensely confused and taken aback as her date, Roger Davies, was suddenly duelling another male student from Durmstrang, for her hand. Or by their comments, her ass, tits, and feet. The last one confused her. If it was not a common occurrence for her – two guys fighting over her – she supposed it would be flattering. Either way, it was something she hated, so she ditched the two duelling boys and returned to her room.

On the other side of things, Viktor Krum was tending to a passed out Hermione. His alcohol tolerance was high even for a mage, so his body had hardly even noticed the tequila. For her part, Hermione had downed five glasses of what she believed to be water as she disliked the other drinks and juices.

He opted to take her to the infirmary, not knowing why she had gotten loopy and then vomited, before passing out. He knew them to be the signs of someone being drunk, but as far he knew, she had not ingested any alcohol, so her symptoms hinted at some other underlying condition. At least that is what he thought.

Cedric Diggory and his date, Cho Chang, had disappeared from the Ball altogether.

"See?" Harry asked as he turned to an irate Sapphire. "Everyone's having fun!"

"Everyone's drunk you mean! Did you even stop and consider that you are making minors drink?!" Sapphire questioned.

"...you make a good point which I honestly did not consider," Harry said. "Ummm oops?"

Sapphire threw her hands in the air, knowing that it was too late to do anything anyways. Other than an area wide sobering up spell. But spell would have to apply its effect on each and every single person here, all three or so hundred of them, and Sapphire did not have the power to do so herself. As opposed to Harry and Lavinia, or even Ingvild, who had either Longinus Class Sacred Gears or the equivalent of one, Sapphire only had her Veela heritage to go with.

Another loud gasp from the crowd drew their attention. It was that Draco Malfoy guy, who had lost to Lavinia in a single hit. He seemed to be fighting? Sapphire wasn't sure, but whatever it was, it was a sad sight.

"Oi, Weasley," Draco slurred as he punched the red haired boy. "Words cannot describe how much I wanted to do that!"

Ron Weasley did not seem the least bit bothered by the punch. In fact, he punched Draco back, slugging him across the face. "Me too you... you... blonde ferret!"

Draco stumbled back, even as his date, a pudgy faced girl who Harry nor Sapphire had met before, egged him on. "Break his arm, Draco!"

Ron had no supporters of his own as of yet, but he simply tackled Draco, and the two went tumbling down, biting and tearing each other's clothes. Again, if Sapphire and Harry did not know any better, she would have thought the two had hots for each other. But all Harry could feel through his empathy was hate, resentment, and jealousy. From both of them, even in their drunk state.

The two continued their sad excuse of a fight even as they drew a large audience.

"You know what, I don't even care anymore," Sapphire said, giving up. "Lets just go back."

Harry smiled, his 'plan' coming to fruition. The two of them left, with Ingvild and Lavinia following them. Lavinia was lucky in that she could feel and ignore Harry's compulsion spell, even though Ingvild had helped her in realizing that Harry had placed such a spell.

"You better make it to me," Sapphire said as they got out of the chaotic Ball Room. "I was looking forward to this."

Harry sighed, feeling increasingly guilty as he saw Sapphire's downtrodden expression. He supposed he had ruined Sapphire's night for his own selfishness. If nothing else, it was his duty to make it up to her. "Okay, fine. The next time such a thing comes up, I will not interfere in any way, and I will actually dress up and all that jazz."

Sapphire looked at him, her eyes narrowed. Then she let her gaze drop. "I will hold you to that."

Harry sighed. "Hey... wanna go to that Lake? Just the two of us?"

Sapphire nodded. Ingvild and Lavinia smiled at the two, deciding to give them some privacy by heading back to their room.

* * *

Kuroka had finally made it to Hogwarts. It was a large enough castle she supposed, and she had gotten lost twice already within. She could have just gone straight to meet with Harry and the others, using her senjutsu or youjutsu to find him, but her curiosity had gotten in the way.

Such as bunch of moans and groans coming from around the corner of the hallway she was in.

Kuroka turned around, to see a rather tall, pale boy making out with a Chinese girl. Both were in various states of undress, with the girl's dress hanging loosely from her shoulders, and the boy was topless with a noticeable bulge in his pants.

"Cedric...please...not here," The girl seemed to be saying as the boy, now identified as Cedric, placed kisses down her neck.

"We're secluded here, Cho," Said Cedric, giving her another hickey. "Where is your sense of excitement anyways?"

Kuroka wondered if she should shift into her humanoid form, to give them a scare if nothing else. Their expressions would be hilarious!

"Mm, fine... but can we move fro–" Cho tried to talk, before she noticed Kuroka. Then her eyes widened, as she pushed away Cedric from her. "Pr-Professor McGonagal?!"

Cedric immediately separated from her, as he too, noticed Kuroka's cat form. His eyes widened with fear. "We're just... umm... talking! That's right, talking, Professor! We'll leave immediately!"

Without waiting for Kuroka to do anything, the two ran away, quickly grabbing the clothes that were on the floor.

Kuroka shrugged. Perhaps this professor was a nekoshou or nekomata like herself. Or a shapeshifter. Whatever it was, hopefully it was the former than the later. Her kind was already rare, so meeting more would be a treat.

Kuroka turned around, deciding to find Harry for real this time.

Or she would have.

"Ooooh, what a cute kitty!" Came the voice of a blonde girl who suddenly appeared before her. Kuroka yelped, but otherwise did not do anything as she was picked up by the girl. "Why do you have two tails? Oh, are you the ultra-rare _Felis bicaudae_?"

Kuroka was quite sure that was just 'two tailed cat' but in Latin, but the way this girl was petting her was making her practically melt in her arms. She couldn't help but purr as she began to scratch behind her ears.

"My name is Luna, what's yours?" The girl said, as she began to walk away, Kuroka in her arms.

Kuroka meowed softly in response. Sure, she could have talked in any human language even in her cat form, but she did not want to raise suspicions towards herself, as this girl felt... odd to her.

"That is a wonderful name! Do you mind if I just call you Kuku?"

Kuroka was quite surprised. Did she just understand her cat-speech or did Luna just give her a nickname that she thought was cute?

Deciding to test this further, Kuroka meowed again, asking if Luna knew Harry.

"Of course, Kuku! But that can wait till the morning," said the girl.

Now Kuroka was thoroughly confused. That was a very generalized response, but it also fit what she asked. The girl took her to her dorm, or at least that was what Kuroka assumed, given the two beds and the trunks near the beds.

"You can stay here. No one will mind. I am quite sure of that!"

* * *

By the morning, Sapphire's annoyance at what Harry had done had died down considerably. Especially considering that nothing bad had happened, at least to their knowledge. Most people who had shown up for breakfast were more or less hungover, with the older students and teachers adding a potion to their morning tea, before helping their younger housemates.

Given that hangover relieving potions were not meant to be taken on an empty stomach, it made sense.

Of course, the impromptu walk they had taken along the Lake had also helped in that. It was almost romantic, with the moon being reflected in the Lake, lighting up their faces as they walked and talked, hand in hand. The only thing that ruined it was that she was still dressed up rather fancily whereas Harry was in t-shirt and PJ's.

Harry shook himself of that as he found himself, once more, in Dumbledore's office, this time with a few professors present. There was that old woman, McGonagal, the greasy haired Snape (who's hair was curiously greasy even though it was in the morning) and that dwarf (or at least that was what Harry assumed, given his height and build... which was curious as to how a dwarf came to learn magic), whom Harry had never interacted with.

"We have reason to believe that you were the one who made everyone drunk last night, Mr. Potter," said the old headmaster.

Harry just gave an innocent smile. "And how so? I never carried any alcohol, you know."

"I suspect transfiguration was at play," McGonagal said. "We were able to check the leftover water from last night. Which, curiously, wasn't water."

"And how do you know it was me? Any of your students, or even the students from the other schools, could have done it."

"That is true," Dumbledore said. He seemed to be in thought about it. In all fairness, he had no concrete proof, only Minerva's assurance that it was a very complex set of spells. While he had come to the same conclusion himself, only Harry and his pals would have the knowledge to do so – no other school taught that kind of spells officially.

But that was the thing. _Officially_. Even Hogwarts students learned spells that were taught anywhere from time to time. Dumbledore himself was an example, as was Severus Snape. Even Voldemort had started his descent into unknown and Dark Magic in the school.

Severus had levied a lot of accusations at Harry Potter, but Dumbledore had dismissed them as biased and baseless.

But he would not stop hounding Dumbledore about it, hence the meeting. Sometimes it was far less of a headache to give in rather than do something about it.

While Dumbledore thought of his next course of actions, Snape's eyes met Harry's.

Harry's smile widened further as he felt the legillimency on his mind.

Snape blinked. He could read every single thought that Harry was thinking of. He turned a slight bit red with embarrassment and disgust, as all the Potter brat's thoughts were directed at something called 'hentai' and what he was going to watch tonight, along with the way he was going to pleas–

Snape brought himself out of the brat's disgusting mind.

The fact that he felt no defences in his mind did not even register in Snape's mind.

Harry was chuckling to himself as Snape looked somewhere else. While most people would have thrown a legillimens out of their mind at first notice, Harry preferred misdirection. Allow them in, but let them see what you want them to see. This ensured two things: the legillimens not knowing that they have been duped, and the second being that the legillimens would not bother knocking you out.

Occulumency was a reactive defence, but also one that required consciousness. When the occulumens was not conscious as a result of a spell or blunt force trauma, their mind was essentially unguarded. There were ways of getting around this issue, with the use of runes, but Harry was not carrying any rune of the sort.

' **You do realize that even if you were unconscious I would not let anyone read your mind?'**

' _...Shut up, Ddraig.'_

"Mr. Potter are you even listening?"

Harry turned to McGonagal, his innocent look still in place. "Hmm?"

"I shall ask you again, directly this time. Did you or did you not transfigure the water into alcohol?"

"Now why would I ever do such a thing?" Harry asked.

"This is going in circles," said the only professor who had a squeaky voice.

"So you have no proof, yet you accuse me," Harry said. "Mostly based off of this grease-ball's suggestion, no doubt, given the amount of hostility he exudes at me."

Said 'grease-ball' glared heatedly at an unfazed Harry.

"That is because it is something that your father would do, you arrogant brat!"

"Sounds like a fun guy!" Harry said in response. "No wonder my mother fell for him."

Snape growled, his brows furrowed in anger. His face was so red in anger that it would have put tomatoes to shame. Harry wondered if he should cast a spell so that the mental picture of steam coming out of his ears would be complete.

"Your efforts to antagonize Professor Snape aside," Dumbledore cut in before Snape could do anything he would regret. "It seems we have no proof that you were the culprit. You are free to go."

Harry stood up and left without a word.

Snape turned to Dumbledore. "But Headmaster! He was the one who–"

Dumbledore sighed, "I already listened to your suspicions, and acted on them despite my better judgement. I am aware of your issue with James, but that should have died with him."

Snape turned and left angrily. He would have to do something about this infuriating brat once and far all.

* * *

The wraith of Voldemort growled in frustration as Barty Crouch Jr. cowered before him.

"I am sorry milord! I am unable to get close to the Potter brat!"

Well, that was not the reason why Voldemort was angry at his Death Eater. But after being reduced to such a sorry state, he could not communicate at all. Except to Nagini, but that was because she was his horcrux. Which was also a major problem, because being turned into a horcrux seemed to have a negative effect on her memories.

Seriously, Nagini expected him to believe that she was actually a very attractive woman who was cursed into turning into a snake and knew Newt Scamander and a guy who may or may not have been Albus Dumbledore's relative and/or a LeStrange and was also an Obscurus.

That was almost as unbelievable as Dumbledore and Grindelwald being lovers.

"Don't worry, Crouch! When our Lord is revived, he will surely be pleased! Just go back and do your job!" Peter Pettigrew said as Barty nodded and left.

Then there was this clown, Voldemort idly thought. The true betrayer of the Potters, who had led him to their Cottage in Godric's Hollow.

Oh, he remembered that night as it was yesterday.

_Voldemort smirked to himself as James Potter realized the danger of the situation he was in, and the fact the realization of betrayal came upon his eyes. He relished that look, and the clear fear that was on his face._

" _Lily! Its him! Take Harry and run!"_

_Voldemort chuckled as Lily Potter ran upstairs to her son. He ended James Potter quickly, and to his credit, he did not even beg for his own life like everyone else who met their end at his hands. Just like a true Pureblood, Voldemort thought to himself._

_Of course, he needed to end Lily Potter quite quickly. While there were anti-apparition and anti-floo wards placed Lily could just run away and apparate from outside the boundaries of the wards._

_So he quickly made his way upstairs, where she was... standing in front of her baby._

_It confused him. Why did she not take the child and run away? Surely jumping out the window was a viable option, especially to a witch. The height or the size of window was an issue when you could just transfigure the wall into a set of stairs to help you run away. And then a few disillusions and notice-me-nots to keep him from following them._

_And most of his Death Eaters and spies told him that Lily Potter was a brilliant witch. Yeah, brilliantly_ stupid, _perhaps._

_Yet, here she was, staring at him unflinchingly. "Take me instead! Leave Harry out of this!"_

_Well, Snape had requested him to spare Lily when he had brought him that prophecy, so there was that to consider. Not that Voldemort understood why. Her husband and child just died and Snape thought that she would come to him, a known Death Eater, for emotional support. Why did he employ such idiots again?_

_Without so much as a word, he put her out of her misery. Then he looked at the crying baby._

_This was the supposed Chosen One?_

_Well, he would be if Voldemort had actually believed in that prophecy. In reality, it had just played into his plans. The Potters and Longbottoms, his number one enemies after Dumbledore, had – very predictably – gone into hiding, and the Potters were under the Fidelius. He could just kill them and no one would know. Then because of Right of Conquest, their vaults and all of its knowledge would become his for the taking._

_But there was the situation of the bawling baby. Voldemort could let him live, but then he would be placed in some orphanage where he would be bullied for being different. Death was a better alternative to that!_

_Then again, that child would grow up to resent him and would constantly plan to murder him in his coming Empire, and would probably die trying to kill Voldemort. Not to mention, if he wanted to claim the Potter Vaults by Right of Conquest, he could not just let the heir live._

_So he simply turned his wand on the baby, and cast the Killing Curse. Then the world turned white._

It was like a constant reminder, the way he failed to kill one baby because the Killing Curse backfired. Voldemort himself did not know why. Nor did he care. Had it not for his multiple horcruxes he would have died for certain. As it was, he was reduced to this wraith like spectre.

Then, about a few years ago, he was found by that Quirell guy, and Voldemort had tried to use the Philosopher's Stone along with Unicorn Blood to restore himself, but Dumbledore had thwarted his plan by hiding the Stone within the Hogwarts Castle, behind a Mirror of Erised.

That crafty old man infuriated him to no end.

At least Lucius Malfoy had been more than willing to persuade the Board to make them hire him, and had kept his diary for safe-keeping. If nothing else, that was one smart man amongst his Death Eaters unlike those fools who went to Azkaban in his name.

They would have been much more useful outside, weakening the Ministry further until his eventual return as Lucius had done.

Of course, the only reason he kept those fools was because of their family secrets. After researching Gringotts Bank's method of handling their Vaults, as well as the Ministry's rather insistence of adhering to laws made in the Dark Ages, Voldemort had come to one conclusion: the people who ran the world were idiots.

After all, he just wanted immortality. Then he could conquer the world at his leisure. And the old, powerful families kept a lot of information and knowledge hidden in their Vaults and family Manors which would help him do so. Back in his school days he always thought how unfair it was that the old and powerful families would have an unfair advantage over other students like himself.

By marking each of Voldemort's 'Inner Circle' with his symbol, that meant that to Gringotts, they were his property. Their Vaults, and the all the gold and knowledge held within, were his. Because of this, he could also gain access to their family manors by the Ministry's Law that the one who controlled the Gringotts account was also the de facto head of family.

No doubt that was put in place to ensure that some random man or woman would not just show up out of nowhere and claim that they were the true heir to some old family.

Voldemort had, however, ensured that this played into his hands instead.

But when Quirell had been defeated by Dumbledore, the old coot could not end him entirely, which had allowed him to flee. And then he was found by Peter Pettigrew, who had hatched this whole plan to get Harry Potter back to UK, rather than leave him to his devices.

After all, if the world was convinced that the Boy-Who-Lived was long dead, then there was no reason for them to ever meet, at least until Voldemort had gained true immortality. The horcruxes could only allow for resurrection should he die – and even that required a ritual which was what Pettigrew was trying to do – but if the last one was destroyed, there was no do-over.

Voldemort wished to avoid this.

But no, Pettigrew just had to come up with an unnecessarily complex plan to capture Harry Potter, all because Pettigrew had interpreted the words 'blood of the enemy' as 'blood of Harry Potter'. Personally, Voldemort had no qualms with Harry Potter. Apart from killing him for the Right of Conquest to activate, of course. But Voldemort did not consider him an enemy in the tradional sense.

And now he was in this mess, as because he could not communicate properly, Pettigrew did what he wanted, not what Voldemort wished for. And interpreted his anger and annoyance at the nonsense as impatience.

Well, at least Voldemort knew one thing: he was going to kill Pettigrew as soon as he was resurrected.

* * *

Mephisto and Azazel glared at each other.

"You owe me five hundred grand for all of those sex dolls you bought using my credit card."

"I owe you five hundred grand fucks that I don't give," Mephisto said.

"...so you owe me five hundred grand fucks, but you don't want to give them? What?" Azazel asked, a bit confused at the statement.

"You know what I meant," Mephisto said. "Besides, I don't own any sex dolls."

"Because you shipped them to me!" Azazel growled.

"So you think, that I bought some very expensive sex toys, but sent them to you instead of using them myself?" Mephisto questioned.

"Well, yes! This has to be some ploy to get me to admit that I knocked up your daughter!"

Mephisto smirked. "Aha! So you do admit it!"

Azazel grumbled. He walked right into that one. "No, I did no such thing! And that is not the point of this discussion!"

"No backsies! You said it!"

"Yes backsies!"

"No. Backsies."

"Yes. Backsies."

The two men glared into each other's eyes.

"Y'know with that intense stare into each other's eyes is making my yaoi fangirl tendencies

tingle," Penemue said as she walked in the room, a mirthful look in her eyes.

"I am very straight, thank you very much," Mephisto said.

"And male devils who lack tits are not my type," Azazel said.

"...so fat bastards, then?" Penemue and Mephisto said together.

Azazel grumbled further, another one that he just walked straight in.

"Besides, if you are both done arguing as children, maybe we can make sense if Mephisto really stole from you, Azazel."

"Which I did not."

"He totally did," Azazel said.

"...Mephisto, do you recognize this?" Penemue said as she handed Mephisto a photograph.

"Is this?!" Mephisto said, before he burst out laughing. The photo showed Azazel trying desperately trying to get away from a bunch of tentacles. Some of them had wrapped around his waist, neck, and limbs, and were trying to pull him in. "This is totally going on the internet!"

Azazel snatched away the picture before Mephisto could do anything else.

"See, Azazel? He does not know anything."

Azazel gave Penemue a blank stare. "That does not prove anything, and he can make a replica using his memories. If nothing else, you just gave him blackmail material."

Penemue gave Azazel an innocent look in return, "Whatever do you mean? I did no such thing."

"...You don't believe that I purchased them myself, do you?" Azazel asked, with narrowed eyes.

"I will believe that when you PAY THE DAMN CARD COMPANY!" Penemue yelled. "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MANY TIMES THEY HAVE CALLED?! I AM NO LONGER GOING TO ANSWER YOUR CALLS YOU DAMNED GOOD FOR NOTHING ASS WIPE!"

Mephisto was still laughing at the picture.

**Author's Note:**

> I know I said that this is not a serious fic, but I couldn't help myself when I added the non-serious plot lines. I do have a general idea as to what I wanted to do with this...
> 
> I know most people don't like OC's, but only Sapphire has a main role. Others like Irma are background characters and won't be featured much.
> 
> Also, this was meant to be a triple crossover with the Fate franchise where the Grail war would eventually be revealed to be a gigantic prank set up by Mephisto and Zelretch. But I thought it would be funnier if Harry was (taken hostage by) addicted to the Fate franchise. So expect a lot of Fate references.
> 
> Hope you all enjoyed!


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